Drumroll Please!

As some of you may remember, a year ago one of the resolutions I made was to update my blog with a post for every month. Since then I have decided a better idea is probably to resolve to just post when I actually have good news or whatnot. Regardless, here is my 12th and final post for that goal, so read on to see what happened in December 2013!

The last month of the year, the last month of my “blog resolution”, and a busy month it was! I didn’t get around to half the “Christmas activities” on my list, probably due in part to a lack of planning, but let’s just say it was the pregnancy’s fault! I spent a lot of time in the kitchen making a bunch of different treats for secret santa/white elephant/office gift bags, which I actually loved doing, despite having to redo one batch of cookies 3 times! (Thank you pregnancy brain.) But they all turned out really good, so I was happy with it.

My first attempt at fudge - it was hard!

 

 

We made a trip up to Salt Lake where we went to the family history library (Dan’s new hobby), did a live temple session, and went out to eat and go ice skating. It was a lot of fun, I always love being up there at Christmastime to see the great lights on temple square! Let’s see.. we went to Catching Fire which was amazing and I can’t wait for the next one! We also made a last-minute decision the night before leaving town and went to a high school musical production of ‘A Christmas Carol’, which was actually not too bad.

Our Gingerbread house! At 23 weeks.

The Saturday before Christmas we flew to Texas to spend the week with Dan’s family. It was a long day in the airport, followed by a 5-hour drive to Arkansas on very winding roads. Needless to say it was the sickest I have ever felt through this pregnancy and by the time we got to his house I went straight to bed – no greetings for anyone! Thankfully it didn’t last and we spent the next few days in Arkansas feeding cows, watching home videos, and witnessing the baptism of a close family friend – we had never expected that day to come, so it was a welcome surprise when he first told us! Christmas day we drove back to Texas where the extended family lives and had dinner while catching up with (or finally meeting!) everyone. We went to a crazy medieval dinner festival, saw the Hobbit, and went to the zoo before it was time to head back to Utah.

Gotta love that "wide load" half-side view!

Sunday morning we flew into SLC then drove straight to my cabin in Montana – another long travel day but at least the roads didn’t make me sick! I was so excited to see my family and get to spend the next few days with them (I’m sure we drove poor Dan crazy). What with my current condition, and my track record for face plants and running into trees, I figured it was best if I stayed home while everyone skied but Dan got to go so it was all good. We also went shopping, fed the ducks, hot tubbed (as much as I could..), and went to HuHot (my favorite!). And if you know my family, games were played in abundance. J We are always having a good time together, and laughing nonstop. It was so much fun, so even though we almost didn’t make it out from the cabin roads and it took nearly 13 hours to get home, it was definitely worth it.

My cute dad hosting all the ducks! It was crazy!

As far as baby news: not much to report! I had a bunch of appointments as per usual, and things look good. Baby reached viability this month (24 weeks) and is definitely getting bigger and stronger! We love feeling all these acrobatics getting more and more pronounced, and the very obvious “alien” movements you can see on my belly! Though it is a bit of a hassle when I’m rolling over at 3am and trying to go back to sleep, or when it kicks up into my ribs. We still love this tiny human more than anything and are so excited to meet him or her in a few months!

November

My dad came down one weekend for a dental conference he had, so we got to spend a little time with him and eat some good food (one of the best parts of parent’s visiting, right?!) Dan also finally finished up interviews and recruiting, and got 2 internship offers! He ended up signing on with Ernst & Young so we are very excited for that opportunity next summer. 

The last week of November was American Thanksgiving, and since Dan only had 2 classes, I took off the whole week and we had ourselves a “babymoon”! Dan’s always wanted to go on a cruise so I finally gave in and we did a little 3-day one down to Ensenada, Mexico. It was pretty fun and of course, we loved the huge amounts of food available! It’s a good thing I’m already supposed to get fat or I would have been in trouble. ;) In Mexico we got to hold a little baby lion. It was soo cute, just a little scary when he snapped at me! Apparently, I also started showing more noticably this month as a number of the Mexicans were not afraid to comment on my current condition!

On Sunday (24^th) the day we were leaving for the cruise, my grandfather passed away after being in and out of the hospital for months. I was so glad I got to call him a few days earlier and chat, even though it was hard to understand him over the phone. He knew it was me though, and I’m told he was grinning ear to ear when I called, so even though it was hard for me, I’m so glad I got to do that! I also made an effort to see him when I came home this summer and I am so glad I did! For those who didn’t know him, my Poppa was an absolutely amazing man and I am going to miss him. But he lived a good life, and his time here was done. Thankfully, my parents made arrangements for Dan and me to come to Canada right after our cruise and so I was able to be there for the funeral. It was beautiful, and I’m glad so many of his family made it. We sure loved him.

October

Of course, we watched General Conference this month, which I love not only because we get to hear amazing talks, but also because we get to do it in pajama’s while eating special breakfast! (I love eating too much…) I also decided it was time Dan got “cultured” and so we went to a performance of “Shrek: The Musical.” While it was no Broadway, it was still pretty good and he actually enjoyed it – success!

The best part of the month was our first real ultrasound! (First one doesn’t count, since baby was just a little jelly bean, to date the pregnancy). Because of my diabetes, I have to see a lot of doctors, a lot more often than with a typical pregnancy. So I don’t think most people have an ultrasound this early unless they specifically are trying to find gender (I was just shy of 16 weeks). This was with perinatology (maternal fetal medicine specialists – basically, they’re like expert OB’s for high-risk pregnancy!) and they did a really thorough exam where we saw all the body parts, it was so exciting and crazy to think of that little thing growing inside me! And we got it all on DVD, in case you want to watch. ;) The tech said she could definitely tell the gender, but I hadn’t made my mind up yet on whether or not I wanted to know, so we kept it a surprise. I also began to start showing this month, though really it was more fat-looking and anyone who didn’t know wouldn’t have guessed it was pregnancy!

For Halloween we tried watching Nightmare Before Christmas for a second time, since I still have never seen it. I lasted longer than last year, but after about 20 minutes I was done! It was weird and creepy, I’m just going to have to go through life having never seen this “classic”. We also bought a huge bag of candy but of course living in student housing, we had exactly ONE child come… we are STILL trying to eat leftovers.

15w 5d

September, finally!

I swear that right from the first day of September, the leaves started to change and I have to admit, at first I was not ready for sunshine, warmth, and poolside days to be over! But of course, my love of nature took over and I was immediately in love with the cooling temperatures, amazing colors, and of course the smells of fall! Utah really is beautiful this time of year – I just feel like it’s going by too fast now and I don’t have time to enjoy it as much as I’d like! But it has been good, I’ve been loving every chance to get outside with Dan and just enjoy the view.

So this month, it was back to work for both of us! I started back at my job at the accounting office, and Dan started a new semester at BYU as an official MAcc student (thankfully though, this year he is still considered an undergrad so we didn’t have to pay graduate tuition!) So after these last 2 years he will have a master’s degree and (hopefully!) a job offer! He has also been working at a company here in Utah in their accounting department, just a few hours a week and even though it’s not much it’s always nice to have any extra source of income at this point in our lives. He has been working so hard, both in school and at his job, to make sure we have everything we need and I sure appreciate it! That’s one of the things I love about that guy that I didn’t know when we were dating, is what a hard worker he is. Aren’t I lucky?? (Okay, enough mush. ;) ) *Update: I wrote this a few months ago, and since then the company Dan was working at let all their student employees go because their accounting department was a mess after years of horrible practices. Ah well!*

We also went on a couple of small hikes, which I loved because it was a good source of exercise and I had an excuse to just spend a couple hours outside in the beautiful fall weather. We also went to see Monster’s University, which I had been wanting to see since I first saw the commercials! It was pretty good, and Dan enjoyed it despite never having seen Monster’s Inc. (I know, what’s up with that?!) Oh! Earlier in the summer my mom texted me to say there was a drawing for tickets to see James Taylor with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and that I should enter. My mom is a HUGE James Taylor fan, so I figured I’d enter just to give her another shot. A few weeks later she texted me saying it was a sad day in the Malmberg household, as their name had not been drawn! I quickly checked my e-mail and, lo and behold!, I had been picked for a set of tickets! It quickly turned into a happy day at the Malmberg house and so they came down for a few days. It was great as always to see them, and I think my mom was very excited for the concert! Other than that, it’s been a fairly quiet month, just settling into our new routines and readjusting to life in the “dorms”!

This was a little over 9 weeks I believe!

Summer Nights

     It was pretty busy this month, for me at least! I was able to go up to the cabin for about a week and a half, and spend some awesome quality time with my family at the lake. It is probably one of my favorite places on earth, and I’m sad I don’t get to go there very much anymore so when I do, I gotta enjoy it to the fullest! It was a ton of fun, and I’m grateful to my awesome husband who was kind enough to let me go while he worked all day! Then I came back to Lethbridge for a week (man it’s good to finally be able to come back!), which was filled with doctor’s appointments! But on the weekend it was on to the good stuff – one of my best friends Kylie Orr got married! She waited a long time for that guy so even though I missed my own anniversary, I was happy to be there! I loved spending the day with friends and being there for Kylie (who was GORGEOUS, by the way!), and let’s be honest, who can resist the food at a Mormon wedding?! It was a great day and I’m so happy for her!

 

     Sadly, I had to return to Kansas the day after (my poor husband had been fending for himself for almost 2.5 weeks at this point!), and then it was a couple days filled with packing before heading back to Utah in time for school. So despite that, and a 16-ish hour car ride (way better than last summer's!), it was a really good month!

Barefooting

 

Homemade chocolates for Kylie's wedding! 

The beautiful bride



In the Heat of Summer

     July was mostly a pretty slow month for us, full of work, the gym and the pool (well, for me at least!) For those of you familiar with summer sales, you know a lot of companies do weekly dinner incentives and competitions, which I love when we win! Though the offices are typically made up with a lot of single guys that want to go to places others of us don’t! Oh well. One popular place this summer was Oklahoma Joes (never heard of it? They’re famous!), because they have all this AMAZING barbeque. Well, I guess that would require someone to like barbeque first, because apparently I don’t. And so I hated going there because there was literally nothing on the menu I liked. (And yes mom, I actually tried different things before deciding I hated it! ;) ) Their fries were amazing though, so they sustained me! If you’re a fan of barbeque I definitely suggest checking it out if you’re in the area! Another place we ate at a couple times was a Japanese Steakhouse; I love them in Utah but this one had the best fried rice ever! Seriously, amazing.

     We also won a movie night so while the majority of the office went to Grown Ups 2, I convinced Dan to take me to Despicable Me 2! What can I say, I love those minions. It was actually really good, and I’m definitely glad we chose that over the other one. If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s definitely worth a Red Box night!

     We also had a chance to visit some church sites. Dan was out of town for a couple days on an accounting “recruiting” trip, so when I picked him up from the airport he took the rest of the day off which, as a summer sales wife, is probably the best day ever! Our first stop was Liberty Jail – the site where Joseph Smith was held during the 1838-1839 winter. The actual jail has been reconstructed, and is housed in a modern building along with other artifacts, but the Spirit there was amazing. It was incredible to hear the guides talk about the hardships endured, as well as revelations received, and to think of the amazing strength and faith of these men. It is a MUST SEE if you are in the area, seriously. Then it was on to the RLDS temple (the offshoot church started by Emma after Joseph’s death). They had a beautiful temple that we were allowed to walk through, but it is definitely weird seeing all this “mormon” doctrine you’ve grown up with being used by another church! I tried to keep an open mind, and it was so worth it to go into the “bookstore” and see all the incredible artifacts and possessions they have on display! Early pictures, Liberty Jail’s original door, 1^st edition Book of Mormon, etc. It was very interesting. Our last stop was to the LDS visitors center; my favorite part of it was this whole room full of photographs taken of early church sites.

I'm behind!

June was a pretty slow month for us, so this is going to be a short post!

First, I went home to Canada for the very first time since my wedding – almost 2 years! It was very exciting; I was so happy to see everyone and finally be back where my true home is. I was only there for about 5 days and spent a lot of time going to various doctor’s appointments, but it was still great to spend time with my family. The girls and I (you know who you are!) also were reunited for a night and it was so great to see them and catch up on everything that’s going on in all our lives.

Yummy Canadian treats brought home for Dan!

While I was gone, Dan went on a recruiting trip to California for the accounting firm KPMG. He spent 2 days out in San Jose getting a feel for the company and the area, as well as networking and interviewing for an internship next summer. I think the best part for him was being in 75-degree temperatures and getting to miss work for 2 days! It was a good experience for him and we’re hoping the interview went well. It’ll be a while before we hear back from them, so we’re waiting and hoping for good news.

Dan’s parents also came out to visit us for a few days. Each summer they drive up to Montana for a family reunion so they stopped to see us on the way. It was good for Dan, since he doesn’t get to see his family much these days.

About the only "fun" thing we did together was go mini-golfing, along with Dan's brother Ryan, his wife Summer (and their new baby Maddison!), and their cousin Matt. It was pretty fun, despite mine and Summer's devastating loss.

I took hardly any pictures this month, so here's my artsy attempt. Eat your heart out! ;)