Maternity Photos

The last few weeks have been soooo busy! We are finally starting to feel all settled into our new place, and meanwhile we have been finding all kinds of fun things to do during these beautiful fall days! My sister Jessica came up for a visit with Sawyer this past week, and I'm so excited to post all about the trip--but it'll have to wait because I have a few other things I want to catch up on first.

Jake has adjusted to the new home so smoothly, and is loving his new bed and new room, and the fact that he gets to spend lots more time with daddy--now that the work commute went from 40+ each way to about 5 minutes. (Mommy loves it too!) But it's still probably not quite as much time as we would like :). Wesley started going back to school this semester for a couple nights a week, and is enjoying both work and school--but they definitely keep him pretty busy!

As for me, I've hit my 30 week mark of pregnancy, and am still feeling pretty good! I'm able to exercise most days, and continue keeping up with a few hair clients here and there in the evenings. I'm definitely stretching out my shirts to the max, and this baby is starting to feel enormous, but it's not too bad. Sometimes it's hard for me to believe that I'm the same pregnant lady that was pregnant with Jake a couple years ago ( i did NOT feel this chipper at 30 weeks on round 1!)--it goes to show that every pregnancy is unique, and that chasing around a toddler is definitely a good distraction. The time is flying by, and I just know that these last 2 months are going to be over so quick!

We've been taking lot's of pictures of all our adventures, but for tonight I just want to post my maternity pictures! We wanted to take them before my tummy got too alarming and huge, so we did it just before I hit 28 weeks. As usual, Sydney did an amazing job--she has a great eye for capturing so much joy and feeling in each shot, and I'm always impressed that she can get such nice pictures of Jake--a kid that refuses to pose for the camera. Thanks again Syd.

I hope everyone is getting their fill of pumpkin flavored foods, and lighting those apple cider candles. Happy Fall! :)

All kinds of summer fun!

Finally catching up!!! This post is just a collection of some of our summer adventures. I also did a post about Syd's wedding day, which you can find right below this one :)

About a week after the wedding, Wes and I took Jake to the Spanish Fork Fair. He loved watching all the carnival rides, went down a giant slide with daddy, and generally had a blast.

Jake's favorite thing was the duck game. He got to choose a duck and trade it in for a prize!!

He chose this blue ball as his duck prize. The rest of the fair we sat down in the park and let him run around til he passed out.

At the end of July we had a ton of thunderstorms--Very unusual for a utah summer. Jake and I spent a lot of time cooped up in the house. He found lots of ways to stay entertained :)

Yep-he put on the headband himself--and wore it all afternoon. yikes.

We weren't able to use Jake's swim diapers for the pool with all the rain, but he found other uses for them :)

A few weeks ago I went to my good friend Cheronne's baby shower. Wesley watched Jake so I could go and enjoy the afternoon. I made some yummy yummy cupcakes to contribute to the fun!

Bellies! I was at 20 weeks in this picture--Cheronne had 3 weeks left :)

About a month ago Jake starting climbing in and out of his crib, so we decided it was finally time to get him ready for a big boy bed. We did it in phases, starting with just taking off the bar of his crib. Eventually we converted the crib into a toddler bed, and then this weekend we introduced him to his new twin bed! The transition has been smoother than we could have hoped, and I'm so happy to see him enjoying his new bed!

These were taken on the day we took off the crib bar. He was thrilled to see his crib could do something that cool!

A couple weeks ago we took Jake to the petting zoo at Thanksgiving Point. I don't know why we never did that with him before now, because he loved it!!!! His favorite things were feeding the goats and riding the ponies!

He was amazed to see a cow indoors!

Jake loved feeding the baby goat :)

The animals were completely forgotten every time an airplane or helicopter flew by.

He wasn't so sure about the lamas at first, but he warmed up after awhile!

After the wagon ride

After one round with daddy holding his leg, Jake decided he wanted to ride all by himself! Jake isn't much of a daredevil, so the bravery was a nice surprise.

So my main reason for going this long without posting is that we moved up to Pleasant Grove this month! It's been an exhausting experience, but we are slowly getting unpacked and settled. Jake is doing wonderfully in his new room and new bed, and we couldn't be happier about our new apartment! It's less than a mile from Wesley's office (main selling point for renting here) and I have a grocery store about 30 seconds away. Life is good, my pregnancy is going great, and I'm feeling joyful about this new chapter in our lives. I will take some pictures once things get a little less hectic. Until then, I will be unpacking, organizing, and diving into another spectacular utah fall season. In fact, I think I'll go make some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies right now :) Thanks for reading!

Wedding Day!

I'm finally putting up a few pictures from Syd's wedding day--Things have been pretty hectic the last few weeks, but I'm going to do a few quick catch up posts today and hopefully I won't get so behind in the future.

The day was both wonderful and exhausting. It started around 5:45 in the morning with a quick shower before I did Sydney's hair. The timeline of the day went something like this:

6:00 -- Beautifying the bride

8:00 -- Head up to Salt Lake with the Jake in tow

9:30 go into the temple and wait for the sealing to begin (thanks again to the Phelps for watching the kiddos during the ceremony!)

around noon--we all sweated it out on the temple grounds, snapping photos, and trying to keep jake from completely losing it in his long sleeve shirt, black pants, and tie. (it was seriously boiling out there)

1:00 Luncheon at the Joseph Smith Memorial building (Thanks AGAIN to the Phelps for watching my child in the afternoon. They took him and Sawyer and walked around Salt Lake with our strollers for a couple hours..during naptime...but with children who wouldn't sleep..in the heat blaze... you guys saved us.)

Then we killed about an hour driving around so Jake could get in a small nap, and headed to the reception center. The reception was beautiful, the food was scrumptious, and I can't believe we survived with a child who is frightened of large crowds, and normally goes to bed at around 7:30. But we did! The reception center had a brides room, and when Jake got tired and anxious, he retreated to that room and watched movies on his dvd player until the party was over. Thank goodness for that room! Here are a few pictures of the day.

I haven't seen the photographers stuff yet, but if there are any extra cute ones of my little family, I will probably post those later on :)

pre-wedding madness

Last month was one of the busiest and most fun that I've had in quite awhile. That's because it was wedding month!!! Yes, for those who didn't know, my little sister sydney has abandoned her maiden name of "schindler" and is now an official "sherwood". In some ways it's strange to think that she is married now, but mostly I'm just happy that she is settled and entering this next exciting phase of her life! Of course, we all know that getting married young isn't something thats very shocking to me.. Syd is already 21-- I was 19 when I tied the knot ;).

Now that the wedding is over and life has gone back to normal, I figured it was about time I start updating my blog on all of our adventures! This post will be all about the pre-wedding acticities of those couple weeks. I'll get to the actual wedding day next time.

Around 4 pm on July 10th, my parents rolled into town with their van packed to the gills. They had hauled out all of Syd's virginia wedding shower gifts, presents for the little boys, and all the decor and trimmings to make the wedding go off in true Schindler fashion. Syd had arrived the week before to get a head start on her own last minute errands, and so she drove up to the Salt Lake Airport that day the get Jessica and Sawyer (Nate came a few days before the wedding--Dental School doesn't allow for weeks and weeks of free days ;) ). So by 7 pm that night, the schindlers were under one roof, and project wedding was underway! The week was consumed with running errands, assembling party favors and sewing endless table runners--to name a few things. But we were all together and felt so joyful preparing for the big day! We managed to squeeze in a few non wedding activities, and just had a blast being in each others company. Unfortunately, I left the picture taking mostly to everyone else, so I've had a time of it tracking down pictures. Here are the ones I do have, and I may end up posting up more as I get them.

We had a fun filled bachelorette party one night at PF Changs. The food was delish, and the conversation was fabulous. It was a great way to send off Sydney into married life!

Ok, so my last post I announced that we are going to be having a girl, but I never took the time to write about my experience in finding out. I actually found out at 17 weeks instead of the more traditional 20 weeks. My parents were in town and we decided it was worth paying for an extra ultrasound so that they could be there for the big reveal! So one afternoon, my parents and Jake and I piled into the van and drove up to the ultrasound facility. We met up with Wesley who had just gotten off work.

With my heart beating right out of my chest, we marched into that office. I pulled up my shirt, let the man put some goo on my tummy, and we were off! For those who didn't know, Wesley and I were really hoping for a girl. Although it would've been so nice for Jake to have a brother, I've just felt so strongly that he would do really well with a sister! (Plus, if I'm being completely honest, I've also been daydreaming a lot about bows, and pink, and flower headbands, and frilly bum underwear.) After a few minutes of prodding my tummy with his ultrasound wand thing, the doctor announced that he could identify the gender. And then he typed three wonderful words across my baby's ultrasound picture--"it's a girl".

I sat frozen for just a second, and then began badgering him. "are you sure?? is it because you can't see a thingy?? or is it for sure a girl?? show me the part!" It was probably a bit rude of me, but he patiently showed me his findings until I was satisfied. At this point I said something so ridiculous. With tears in my eyes, I looked at that man and said "OH!!! BLESS YOU!!!!"

It was such a wonderful experience, and I'm so happy that my parents were able to be there with us. Thanks mom and dad, for coming! (and for paying for that ultrasound;) ).

After the appointment, we stayed at the mall for awhile and let Jake run around the playground, and Oma and Opa even took him for a train ride! It was an awesome day.

Jake loved having so many people in his house. Everywhere he looked, someone was willing to play with him!

One afternoon we left the kids with the men and took off for a relaxing pedicure. We actually went to the Acaydia school under the Wells Fargo building in Provo, and it was a wonderful experience. I'll never go anywhere else again for a pedicure, as long as I'm living in utah :)

The day before the wedding we got together for a casual lunch at the Pizza Factory with the Thelins. It was so much fun getting together with our side of the family in a more relaxed setting. I loved having the chance to catch up with all my cousins, and it was awesome to see the little kids run around together a bit. I didn't get any decent pictures, and I can't believe we didn't take a group shot!!! But I do have a couple with the 4 kids that were able to come to the lunch.

Boyd wasn't too excited about posing for those particular pictures. But still, what cute kids huh!?

Last thing I want to write about is actually from the day after the wedding. We met up with Jerai and her little boy and my aunt and uncle at the Scera pool. After the whirlwind wedding day, it was so nice to chill out at the poolside for an afternoon! Here are just a couple photos from that.

Next post, I will write all about the wedding day. til then, cheers!!!