Thursday, October 17, 2013

Any day now!






I've been having some contractions, but they don't hurt. So I think I'm in super, duper, early, was-that-a-contraction?-meh,-probably labor. Current estimations by Kyle and me say he'll come on the 18th since that's the next full moon. If not, then we'll play a game of speed Rummikub with my mom when she gets here. Speed Scrabble worked to get our friend in labor, probably due to the stress and adrenaline. Speed Rummikub is way more stressful. And adrenaline rush inducing. Especially with my mom. She's intense. :)

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

October

Hey baby J, I can't believe it's October already. You're going to be born this month! I'm a little nervous, but I'm mostly excited. I think things will be fine. People have been doing this forever, right? I'm looking forward to meeting you and seeing what it is you've been doing to contort my belly for the last 9 months. (Yeah, that wonky leg stretch, foot flicky thing? It'll be cuter when it isn't running into my ribs) You get hiccups a lot, especially after moving and dancing a bunch, and I hope you still will because baby hiccups are adorable. I hope you'll be a good baby and that Kyle and I will be good parents. I'm still just shocked it's already October! Come soon, okay? Love you!

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Less than two months left!

Thought it's about time I posted some pregnancy pictures. Some weeks are missing because, well, we didn't have time to take a picture that week. Enjoy!





















Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Kyle's first day of Grad school!


And yes, I did tear up a bit as he walked down the street. He's so grown up!

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Happy Third Anniversary!

To my best friend, my love, and my favorite person ever, I'm glad we've had these years together and I'm looking forward to having many more. You have been the best husband I could ever have and you're going to be a great dad. Love you more than I know!




Friday, May 31, 2013

We're having a...

BOY!!!

I think that is his hand at the top of his head. Isn't he just the cutest wee thing you ever did see?

 So is he :) We went out to dinner to celebrate our new family and my birthday.

First family picture! We're super excited!

Sunday, May 26, 2013

Gender prediction!

On Wednesday, Kyle and I are going to my 20 week ultrasound and we'll find out if we're having a boy or a girl. So we decided to do put some old wives' tales to the test! We based our tests on research and results from this blog. She and I were in the same major (Political Science) and I really got to know her in our awesome political economy of women class and capstone class. I also thoroughly enjoyed their statistical analysis. We did different tests because we didn't agree with some they used and we've already had some predictions made. So here goes:

The Tests
1. Pencil on a string (circle=boy, back and forth=girl): GIRL
2. Heartbeat (under 140=boy, above 140=girl): GIRL
3. Genetics (based on Kyle's nieces and nephews): BOY
4. Ancient Chinese Prediction Method (Age at conception + Month of conception): BOY
5. Ancient Mayan Prediction Method (Age and Year of conception are both even or odd=girl, not the same=boy): BOY
6. How a key is picked up (narrow part=girl, round part=boy): GIRL
7. Pregnancy acne (normal=boy, worse=girl): BOY
8. Swinging wedding ring (circle=boy, back and forth=girl): GIRL
9. Morning sickness in first trimester (bad=girl, little or none=boy): BOY
10. How baby weight is carried (hips=girl, tummy=boy): BOY

(copied from blog)
Our Analysis
"We decided to use a weighted average of our ten-dimensional vector to statistically combine the results of all ten tests. The weights are a number between 1 and 0 that conveys how much we trust that particular measure (1 = perfect trust, 0 = no trust whatsoever). The vector of predictions (Vp) is first assembled thus (1 = girl, -1 = boy)":

[1, 1, -1, -1, -1, 1, -1, 1, -1, -1]

 Our trust values are chosen based on the following reasons:
1. We trust this one a lot. Our friend Dennis performed this test on his wife and friends and has been right every time. Trust = .98
2. We found studies that disprove this test and that heart rate is based more closely on the baby's birth weight. However, the study found that boys tend to be heavier than girls and thus have a lower heart rate, though it is possible to have a heavy girl and vice versa. Trust = .65
3. Genetics are pretty hard to argue with. Of Kyle's 6 biological niblings, 5 are boys and 1 is a girl. But surprises can happen! Trust = .87
4. While ancient methods are tried and true, Chinese culture tends to be more biased toward boys. Trust = .75
5. Again, ancient methods are tried and true, and this researcher has no knowledge of ancient Mayan biases. Trust = .93
6. Not a lot of trust in this test as results depend upon too many variables (e.g. weight and size of key, direction key is pointing, etc.). Trust = .2
7. This is preposterous; girls should make your skin glow. Trust = .2
8. Unlike the pencil on a string, we could not get a good reading on this test. Trust = .01
9. This is also somewhat unfounded. The foreign entity of the boy fetus should make me sicker. And, as was said on the other blog, "Girls don't make me barfy. This is simply absurd." Trust = .1
10. No opinion on this test. Trust is a neutral .5

Trust vector (Vt):
[.98, .65, .87, .75, .93, .2, .2, .01, .1, .5]

Final weighted average =
Vp * Vt / 10 = -0.151
-0.151 < 0
So we might be having a BOY. We'll see how accurate our prediction is on Wednesday. Kyle anticipates this method becoming more accurate with the more children we have as we weed out the inaccurate tests. Stay tuned! We're so excited (read: Kyle is curious and I'm antsy)!
 

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

St. Patrick's Day

Yeah I know it was like a month and a half ago. Dontcha wanna see pictures anyway? Well here they are.

 My family tradition is eating food that is green because a leprechaun touched it. So per tradition we had green pasta with green beef stroganoff and peas and carrots (we must have hidden the carrots from the leprechaun).


 And for dessert...green cake! I had to make up the frosting with the remnants of cream cheese and butter we had and topped it with green coconut.

Oh! and while I was getting these pictures, I found these that I meant to post a while ago. Back in February I was feeling homey so I made strawberry freezer jam. I'm so domestic!




And I found a picture of an experiment we tried. We made bagel dough and spread cinnamon-sugar-nutmeg-yum on it, then rolled it up, cut it in half, and twisted it up. It was okay, but doesn't it look ah-may-zing??

Anyway, now you know that we're not starving. Have a great day!

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Finally a slow moment

We have been really busy lately! Kyle and I were in a play and it was awesome. It just closed last night and while we are sad to have it end, we are excited to have our nights and weekends back. While I don't have pictures to upload from the play yet, here's a video from a dance recital I was in back in January. I'm the one with the long curly hair. ...Nevermind. The video isn't working. *sigh* Oh well.

I also made a couple crafty things in January that I still need to get pictures of. Anyway, just wanted to let you know we are doing well and are still alive!

Monday, January 21, 2013

A momentous occasion

Today is a pretty significant day. It is the second inauguration of President Obama and it is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Which says to me that the President's inauguration speech ought to be really good. Like really good. Like the-first-black-president-being-inaugurated-again-on-the-observation-of-the-founder-of-the-Civil-Rights-movement good. I didn't get to see the speech, but I have high expectations nonetheless.

Also, today means that four years ago, I was in Scotland doing my internship in the Scottish Parliament. Wow, time flies! After work we all sat in the Member's bar and watched the first inauguration of President Obama. Everyone was really excited to see him become president. Frankly, I was too. Let's see what the next four years have in store!*

*I am refraining from making this a political post because whether you like it or not, he is the President and that should engender some respect.

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

In case you need a pick-me-up

I watched this video that a friend posted on Facebook and really loved it. "Stand in Holy Places" is the theme for the Young Men and Young Women this year. Since Kyle and I are both working with the youth, I thought it pertinent that we know what they are being told by the leaders of the Church and apply that to our lives. Great video!

 

Another friend also linked to this blog post that I may use in a lesson for the young women. Very good!
 

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Personal Happiness project: conclusion

We made it! Whew! It has been a good thing for me to do these challenges and I think I do feel happier. There have been a lot of ups and downs, but overall I'm heading upward. This next year especially, I am going to try to keep simplifying my life so I can enjoy it more instead of always running around like a crazy. I hope that 2013 will be a great year. There are a lot of big life changing things that will be happening this year, mainly grad school for Kyle. We have yet to hear from any, but it is still really soon as most schools he applied to haven't even reached their application deadlines yet. But I am excited to see where we will be headed this next year or if we will be staying where we are. Also, I will be 25 this year! So that's weird. Maybe one of these days I'll finally feel like an adult? Maybe?

Anyway, Happy New Year! I hope you make it a great one!