School and The Fair

Well, school started today! Bummer. Zac and I both have full schedules and I am starting to get a little worried about how I am going to juggle everything after the baby comes, I must be CRAZY! But, I knew that if I didn't finish up my bachelor's now, then I would regret it and probably never finish. I told Zac that this is his last, first day of baccalaureate education, but he wasn't as excited as I was hoping he would be.

On Tuesday we made sure to make it to the Eastern Idaho State Fair. It started last Saturday, and goes until this Saturday. We were hoping to go when the weather wouldn't be too bad, and didn't want to go on labor day because we figured it would be packed. The weather was awful on Monday, so I was praying that Tuesday would be better. And guess what the weather was perfect! And that is saying something, coming from a pregnant lady. It wasn't too hot or cold and the wind was minimal! Yay! We went for about 5 hours, and our good friends the Burkholder's went with us. At the beginning of the summer semester one of Zac's mission companions moved into our ward and then had their little boy in June. So we all traveled together and walked around. It was fun to go with friends, and have a good time before the semester started.

Zac and I in front of the sign where we entered into the fair!

Courtney, Joel, and Lincoln in front of the sign as well. Lincoln actually did great, considering he is only three months. He is such a fun baby, and he is growing so fast!

There was a section for little kids to learn how to work on a farm, this is where you learn to milk a cow. They also had a pooper scooper section, saddling a horse, building a scarecrow, and riding little tractors. Too bad we didn't have a toddler with us, it would have been fun to watch them play.

We also went to the little petting Zoo where you could buy some food to feed the animals. The llamas were trying to chew on peoples clothes, there were goats everywhere climbing on the gates and chasing all the little kids trying to get their food. It was actually pretty funny to watch. They also had little pigs who were born two days before, and they were so cute and tiny, they would probably fit in one hand. We saw alpacas, turtles, ducks, miniature horses, a few bunnies, and a bunch of puppies for sale that you could pet and hold. Some of the puppies were so adorable.

Of course we made our way over to the food. We had a teriyaki bowl, and some fried trout. And we also shared a tiger ear, or elephant ear, they were huge! Joel and Courtney also had a hamburger and a milkshake. We debated about getting more, but decided to go get milkshakes at Rupe's instead. Of course they were cheaper and way yummy!

Here is Joel sitting with Lincoln at Rupe's. They weren't playing, but I thought it was funny.

And this is not a nice picture, Zac was enjoying taking random pictures of me while I wasn't paying attention. But it is a good view of the belly. I pretty much just poke straight out in front now, it is like I have a basketball under my shirt or something :). I haven't been very motivated to take pictures of how I look pregnant. Some people are so good about documenting weekly throughout the pregnancy. But, I don't feel cute, so I don't enjoy taking pictures showing how huge I feel. But we are excited. Another appointment next week, and I can't believe how quickly time really has gone by. I think baby is growing more uncomfortable. He likes to push on my hip and stretch the opposite rib, it is very uncomfortable, but I feel bad that I don't have more room for him to move.

Good News!

Well, my parents are leaving Arizona. A 17 hour drive each way for us to visit them. And they are moving back to Ely, NV. This is where I went to high school, and Zac and I are so excited! This means that they will be so much closer when the baby comes, only 7 hours. I can't believe it. I was really worried about my Mom being so far away, especially if the baby comes early. So we are grateful to be closer. We are hoping that next year we can live somewhere in between our two families so that it is easier to see them all.
More importantly, they are moving because my Dad was offered a job there. They moved from Ely just over two years ago, and I was a little sad. But my Dad's job closed back in April or so and my parents have been looking for about 6 months. This is such a blessing and I am so grateful!

The Happenings

Well, I guess we have been kind of busy but not really. Zac works a lot, so we spend a lot of our time in Idaho Falls so that he doesn't have to drive back and forth as often. We were lucky enough to go down to Salt Lake and Provo on the 25th and 26th to send Elder Jones to the MTC. I still don't think that it has really hit me yet that he is gone. I am sure that it will when the baby comes and I realize that my closest brother won't get to see him for 2 years! I love him and I am so excited to hear about his mission, and to watch how he changes through his letters. The goodbye wasn't too emotional because you just drop them at the curb now and only one car can go through, so we were only able to say goodbye after lunch before my parents dropped him off. We did have a great lunch though, Brickoven Pizza in Provo is yummy! Zac's favorite part was probably their draft root beer. He says that it is now his favorite root beer ever!

Trevor, Elder Jones, Mom, and Dad at Brick Oven.
We were also able to see Allison before she starts her first semester at BYU. April, James, Tiago, and Spencer were all there too.

Mom and Dad with Elder Jones outside the MTC.

They decided to go to a session at the Salt Lake Temple so that some of us could do a live session. It was great, even though we went to the 7 am session. I especially loved it because just a year earlier, Zac and I were sealed in this temple and it brought back great memories of that day.

And on the 22nd it was our first anniversary! I can't believe it has really been a whole year! I have truly loved every minute of it, and I am so excited for everything to come. I love my sweet husband and the fact that he cares for me so much. I never thought that I could love someone so much, but I am surprised everyday. I love watching him from across the room, and his little mannerisms bring the biggest smile to my face. There really is no one else that I want to share my life with.

Zac had to work during the day so I tried to find a nice place that we could go out to dinner. We went to Whitewater Grill/Wasabi in downtown Idaho Falls and had some great food. It is mostly japanese fusion cuisine and sushi. We shared just the basic California Roll and then Zac had Duck and I had Halibut. This was a feat for me becuase I do not like fish. But Zac told me that I couldn't get chicken, so he convinced me.

My Pesto Crusted Halibut, I must say it was great and totally worth it! Even better, we ate every last bite, there wasn't anything left on our plates!Here is Zac's Duck, he really enjoyed it.

The week before that was the Madison County Fair. It was small but entry was free and it was only a block away. So we walked down for an hour or so to check it out. We mostly just saw the animals. I must admit that I have never been that close to a cow in my life and they were huge! Seriously, they are big!

I am petting a Shetland Pony, and not really enjoying the fact that Zac is taking my picture :).

Here is the obese bunny on display. Look how big this guy is, I just had to take a picture.

This one had the best hairdo that I have ever seen. It was pretty amusing.

And so did this guy, talk about an afro!

And of course here is Zac posing with the goat. Well that's pretty much it. Had another Dr's appointment and everything is fine. No news is good news, right. Still no name yet, but I think we are getting closer to deciding, maybe. Only ten more weeks to go and Zac says that he is ready right now. I am very excited to watch my husband become a father, I got him to hold our friend's baby last night and for the first few minutes he was like, "Um, what do I do?" I thought it was funny, but hopefully he will hold him more often and start to realize that it's not all that bad. :)

Sooo True

It seems like I was so ready to wear maternity clothes because I wanted to look pregnant so badly. I have officially been wearing nothing else for probably only 6 weeks, but I am so DONE. I find myself looking at girls who are not pregnant with great envy, and wishing that once again my stomach were flat as it once was. I am forgetting what that used to look like. Everyone says once you get to the point of maternity clothes you hate it. And sadly I am there. Don't get me wrong, I am grateful for this wonderful blessing, but really as my stomach grows like an inch every week and I have gained 15 lbs, I find myself less and less attractive. Luckily, my husband doesn't think so, but seriously, like he is going to tell me otherwise. I just had to vent, sorry.

90 days!

Hello third trimester! Should I be excited? I know that this is supposed to be the worst part of pregnancy. But I have been dealing with the uncomfortableness, heat, and no sleep for at least a month now, so we will see how bad it gets. But, I am so excited! It is crazy to think that I have actually been pregnant for half of the year! 6 months is a long time, and in 3 months, give or take, we will have a baby boy, and I am dying to meet him. I don't know if others have felt this way. But, because I am having a boy, I expect him to come out with dark brown hair, looking just like his daddy! Of course, that is just the image in my head because you never know which genes are there to dominate. Anyways, we are just excited to meet him and get to know his fun personality.

And the naming.........this is the conversation that I try to avoid. We have been trying to talk about a name for almost two months now, and I HATE it! Did anyone else feel this way about picking a name? It drives Zac crazy! He just wants to pick a name, and we cannot decide on anything, we just have very different tastes in names. Not only that, this will be his name for the rest of his life, and I want it to suit him. Is it supposed to be this complicated? We just might have to name our children Barrus 1, Barrus 2, etc. Haha, just kidding. We will take any suggestions at this point, but we most likely wont have anything decided for the next 12 weeks. I am sure that we will decide at the hospital.

On July 25th Zac and I went down to the Greenbelt and walked through the art exhibits they were having. We didn't stay long but it was nice to get out and walk together.

Here I am at almost 25 weeks pregnant. I am getting ever bigger and sometimes I don't enjoy the uncomfortableness I feel ALL day long. But starting Monday I will officially be in the third trimester, yay! Zac and I are very excited for this little boy!

We decided to go to the nature park a few days later. It is a few blocks from our house so we walked down and had some lunch and then fed the ducks. I have to say these ducks love people because they know you have food, so they swarm you the second you get close. It is a little scary.

There were lots of baby ducks though, and they were very cute.
And just FYI. I ended the semester with all A's and I believe Zac had only one B and the rest were A's. So yay for us, another semester down and only one more to go. We are so ready to be done! My husband is a work-a-holic, I am learning. He just got a job at Macy's in IF, and he also has a job working in marketing for H&R Block. Both jobs he is planning to keep once school starts up again, but we will see. He is a hard worker and doesn't have a lot of free time during school because he spends so much time on homework. But, I shouldn't complain, I appreciate that he has such a strong work ethic. And I think he his getting overwhelmed with the idea of having a baby and all the extra expenses that come with that. All in all we are happy, and looking forward to our anniversary in a few weeks. We hope everyone is enjoying their summer.

Oops!

Well, I have been planning on blogging for about a month now, and I just haven't done it! Mostly because the things I have been meaning to blog about, I didn't get a lot of pictures of. So, I guess I will do my best.

On July 14th I was able to go to Arizona and see my family, and be there when my brother Alex went through the temple. It was a great experience. And of course, that night was the Harry Potter Premier! Zac told me that he wasn't going to wait for me to come back to town before he went. So he went in Idaho with his family, and I went with mine in Arizona. He promised we would go together once I got back, but he has yet to keep his word on that. It was nice because we went in Casa Grande, which isn't that big, and they just opened up all their theaters. So there were no lines, we bought our tickets at like 11:00pm, and waited an hour for the movie to start. I have to admit, that I fell asleep a few times, because I was so exhausted, but I really enjoyed the movie!

Then on the 16th we left for Big Bear Lake, California for our family reunion with my Mom's side. About six years ago we started reunions with just the siblings, so we do one every two years, and this year my Mom was in charge. The Bavarian Lodge is where we stayed. It is part of a motel, but it has a big house with like 12 rooms that you can rent out. So we were all able to stay in the same big house with a kitchen and gathering area. We stayed for three days, Uncle Rick brought his boat so that people could ski and go tubing on the lake, and my Mom brought a bunch of fun crafts to work on. We had a talent show one night, and another night we had a Farewell for Alex's mission and celebrated with Texas themed food. We had Fajitas for dinner and Texas Sheet Cake for dessert. My Mom did a fantastic job planning meals and activities. Only two cousins weren't there with there husbands, one was working and the other had here baby the day before the reunion, Congratulations Kortney, Kurt and Destry, what a beautiful little girl! And of course, the four husbands in my family Nick, Bobby, James, and Zac all weren't able to make it. I loved getting away from school for a little while and seeing my family. Plus we found out that my cousin is pregnant as well as my sister and they are due a day apart in February, congratulations!

Here is some of our fun! Jayden and Richie eating their dessert.

I went to the lake with Melanie one day, and we took her kids Jayden and Aaryn. This is Aaryn, I love this little boy!Jayden and Aaryn playing in the sand.Here is Spencer, cousin Eric, Melanie, Aaryn, Jayden, and cousin Andrew in the water.

Here is Alex speaking at his farewell.

Here is Aaryn on the way home. Jayden and Aaryn love Veggietales and Melanie has two DVD players for the car so they each watch in front of them and it is so funny. Aaryn is such a good boy as long as his show is on. He loves TV and will just sit on the ground in front of the TV and his is pretty much mesmerized. He also loves the blankets with tassels and holds it in his hand and sucks on his thumb. It is so cute especially when he tries to climb the stairs while holding it in his hand.

And here is Jayden asleep on the way home, they were such good little boys, and it was fun to spend time with them. It also made me more excited to have my own little boy soon!