Week of Anniversaries and Pure Nostalgia

 The next few days of this month are BIG ones for our family!


January 25th:

This day marks 6 months of having sweet baby Hallie in our lives. 6 months I've been a mom! Half a year! Ah where did the time go? She just gets better and better everyday. I can't believe how much she has learned to do already, she amazes us everyday and we just stinking love her!

January 26th:

This day marks 2 years since Eric and I became "official" and started dating. It marks 2 days since each of us had our "last first kiss"-cue T.Swift song-. It is really one of my favorite memories. I fought so hard against dating Eric for SO long. Finally giving in and deciding to give him a shot turned out to be the best decision of my life. Darn my prideful, stubborn self! But I love that he would not give up, even though the odds were SO not in his favor. If that doesn't make a girl feel loved and wanted, I don't know what does!

January 27th:

This day marks 1.5 years of marriage for us! I love looking back at pictures of our wedding day. It was seriously the best day ever. We couldn't have been happier with how everything turned out. It was so peaceful, calm and special. I loved that my grandpa was able to seal us shortly before he passed away. I love that we were sealed in the St. George temple, where my parents and grandparents were sealed. I love that so much of my new Hillam family made the effort to drive all the way down to Southern Utah to be with us. I love that my best friends Keri, Claire, Taryn, Emily and Holly all traveled to come support me. It was just a blissful, perfect, beautiful day. Most of all, I love that I've gotten to be Mrs. Hillam for the past year and a half. Eric has been such a wonderful husband and I know that he'll get better and better and better. I love learning from his quiet example. I loved watching him become a dad and absolutely excel in his roles as such. I love being in love! Happy 1.5 years to us!

January 31st: 

This day marks two years since I received my endowments in the Rexburg temple (in preparation to serve my mission). Little did I know that it would also be the day that I received my answer that I could, and ultimately would, marry Eric. One of the happiest moments of my life! I love that Ive been able to go to the temple often these past two years. It's been such a blessing in my little family's life.  I love going to the temple with my sweetheart and reminding ourselves of those sacred covenants that we have made with God and with each other. There is no better feeling, and no better motivation to be a little better every single day.

2014 Top 10

10. Celebrated our 1st Wedding Anniversary!

Hallie was born on the 25th of July, and our anniversary is on the 27th of July. Sooo neither of us were really feeling up to a fancy night out on the town. Our celebration consisted of a mini Martinelli that the hospital gave us, a slice of our yummy wedding cake and lots of snuggling with our 2-day-old baby girl! It was fun to look back on the previous months and see how far we'd come since we got married.

9. Discovered Our Love of Indian Food

We celebrated Eric's Dad's birthday with a trip to a new Indian restaurant in Idaho Falls (Tandoori Oven??) That, combined with watching "The Hundred Foot Journey" led to our love of Indian food! We even cooked it up for ourselves one night!

8. First family trip to the zoo on FREE zoo day!

I've been begging Eric to go to the zoo for forever! He always tells me that it's a lame little zoo and not worth the money. So when I heard about a FREE ZOO DAY, I was all over that. Hallie was 2 months old at the time, so we strapped her in the carseat and had a great day at the zoo. We loved it and Eric admitted that it was a lot cooler than he remembered it.

7. Got to be apart of Madi opening her mission call,  going through the temple and being set apart!

Eric's sister Madi headed off to the MTC on December 17th. It was so cool to be able to be there when she opened her mission call (Lisbon Portugal), went through the temple and was set apart. We're so proud of her!

6. Discovered Rexburg's Drive-in Movie Theater

Some of our favorite date nights were spent at the Drive-In theater in Rexburg. We love how cheap it is and that you get to watch two movies for less than the price of one movie at a normal theater. It was Eric's first time at a real drive-in and he loved it!

5. Organized and ran the Annual BYU-I Slam Dunk Competition

For my senior project, I partnered up with Taylor Hartman to organize and run BYU-I's annual Slam Dunk Competition (the competition that Eric had previously won TWICE!) It was a lot of work and a lot of fun. We were really bummed that Eric injured his ankle just a week before the competition, so he couldn't dunk, but he made a great judge! The show turned out awesome, we couldn't have been happier!

4. Noelle graduated from BYU-I with a Bachelors in Communication

Yayayyay! (Please note the adorable grandpa and Uncle Boyce in the background)

3. Spent the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays with our families!

We were spoiled this holiday season. We got to spend Thanksgiving with my family in Overton. The weather was gorgeous and we had so much fun. It was seriously one of the best weeks of the whole year! Then for Christmas, we spent the first half of the break with the Hillam's in Idaho Falls. We played lots of Rook and loved spending time with Jordan and Crystal and their kids. We had a great time! On Christmas afternoon, we flew out to Overton for Hallie's first plane ride. She did great! We loved spending another few days in Overton where Eric and I hardly ever saw Hallie. She was always being held and loved by others. She loved it! We had spent Thanksgiving and Christmas in Idaho Falls last year, so it was awesome to be able to spend some time in Overton.

2. Got into our Dental School of Choice

Wahooooo! This was also one of the best days ever! Eric spent all Fall semester flying around the country interviewing for Dental Schools. He did great and got into several schools, but we weren't happy until we heard back from the Idaho Dental Education Program (IDEP). We will spend our first year of Dental School in Pocatello at ISU, and the last three at Creighton in Omaha, Nebraska. We couldn't be happier!

1. Welcomed Hallie Grace Hillam into our Family!

We became parents on July 25th, 2014. It was seriously one of the most painful days ever, but with out a doubt one of the happiest days ever! We fell in love instantly and fall more and more in love with her every day! She is such a happy baby and we feel so blessed to have her. We love watching her learn and grow and discover new things! She is our joy and has made 2014 a year to remember!

FHE 6/18/14

Song and Lesson: Noelle

Activity and Treats: Eric

After a lovely meal of fried rice (it's become a Monday night tradition), and after waiting until exactly 6:00 pm to begin because that's when the World Cup Soccer game finished, we had FHE.

We sang a primary song and then for our lesson we pulled out our Patriarchal Blessings and reviewed them. We did this right after we first got married and it was so fun and cool to read each other's blessings and literally read about ourselves in the other's blessing. Both of our blessings have segments in them that talk about our future spouses so that was pretty cool...

We also picked out all the parts that talked about our kids and our future as a family.  It really is amazing how perfectly Eric and my blessings correlate. Especially when it comes to our relationships with the family's we were raised in, some of our specific duties that we have together as a family, and special instructions in how to manage our finances. They seriously match perfectly. It was way cool. It was really good to review them and congratulate ourselves in the areas we are doing well in and set goals for ourselves to help us do better in the areas that we need to.

For Eric's activity we went to Walgreens to get a passport picture taken for his Dental Application. We also went and got a frosty at Wendy's for treats. The rest of the activity went as follows: I watched Masterchef and Eric paid dental application fees for 9 different schools. 

Monday nights are seriously the best.

A Day in the Nursery

Yesterday, we spent the Sabbath in Idaho Falls for Father's day. So we went to Eric's home ward with his family. It just so happened the Eric's mom had been put on nursery duty for the day.... so I quickly volunteered Eric and I to come help her in the nursery.

I LOVE NURSERY.

I know that as soon as I have kids of my own, my feelings about serving in the nursery are sure to take a dramatic change... but for now, I feel like it is the happiest place on earth.

Oh my goodness I could eat those two year olds right up! They are just so darling! It was so fun to be in there and playing with them. Although it was not all fun and games... there were a few little terrors in there... but you know what, I think I love those little terrors most of all.

Here's a brief glimpse into our two-hour nursery experience.

Max and Will: The twins. These two are so stinkin' cute! They are identical little toeheads who are outgoing and ready to play at all times. Usually they know who they are, but sometimes they get themselves confused. "I'm Max!.... No, I'm Will! Wait, I'm Max!" Haha so funny. We could tell them apart easily enough because one had a scratch by his eye... so it was just funny that they had more trouble remembering who they were than we did.

Collin and Zoe: These two are siblings. Zoe is a seasoned primary-goer, while this week was Collin's first attempt at the whole thing. Collin struggled big time and cried and cried and cried when his parents left. Zoe would pat him on the head and say matter-of-factly "Stop crying Collin!" He struggled, but we made it through the whole day with only minor trauma experienced for all involved.

Maya and Bowen: Not related... except for the fact that Bowen seemed to have a vendetta against Maya. Maya is adorable. She's confident, stands up for herself and speaks her mind. Bowen is hilarious... he acted like a dinosaur 3/4 of the time, stomping on things and growling with his claws out. But he just wouldn't leave poor Maya alone. He hit, punched, pulled, pushed etc. that poor little girl like crazy! So he was punished and what not, but my goodness, it was so hard to get angry at such a cute kid! He had a mess of curly blonde hair flopping around on his head and gorgeous blue eyes. He was a doll... just a mean one.

There were several other kids, but these are the six that caught my attention. Anyways, I loved the whole thing. I just love watching little kids interact with their surroundings... and try and communicate. Cutest thing ever. Makes me so excited for our own little munchkin to get here and SO curious as to what kind of nursery-goer she will be one day.

Monday Nights

I absolutely love Monday nights. By far, most favorite night of the week.

Eric's Monday school schedule is pretty rigorous (School from 7:45am- 6pm) and by the time he comes home, he's spent.

I try to have dinner all ready so that we can eat as soon as he comes in and then have Family Home Evening right after it.

We've changed our FHE methods/routines like three times since we've been married, and we'll definitely continue to change and adapt them. Keeps it fun. But I want to document some of the things we do, even though they're simple, they're some of my favorite memories.

Right now it's pretty simple. One person is in charge of songs and lesson. The other person is in charge of activity and treats. We alternate weeks. I still can't decide which one I like being in charge of better, they're both great.

Ever since we found out we were expecting, we've been singing primary songs for opening and closing song (figured we should brush up on those). I love it and it makes me wish we lived in a ward that had children over the age of two so that I could be called into the Primary. I'm seriously dying to be in there. I've done the RS presidency thing for the past 5 years and am ready for a little Primary sunshine.

So last night, Eric got home around 6 and we ate fried rice for dinner. (Yes, as the main dish. Weird I know, but I load that rice up with so much good stuff, it'd be silly to have it as a side dish. It's one of Eric's favorites.)

Then we sang the "Jesus Entered Jordan's Waters" song. (We usually pick random primary songs and have to try like 6 times to get the tune right. It's hilarious.)

Eric gave an awesome lesson on the importance of being self-reliant in various aspects of our lives and how self-reliance is a pre-requisite to service. We then came up with ideas on how we could become more self-reliant in those different areas.

And then it was time for activity! One thing I love about being in charge of activity is that because it is FHE, Eric HAS to do whatever is picked for activity! No complaints.

Well it just so happened that the cheap theatre was doing a special that night. Buy one ticket, get one free. But the deal was only for one specific movie, the one movie that Eric has refused to go see with me... "Mom's Night Out." But it was a steal of a deal, and I was in charge of activity, so we spent $3 and went and saw it.

It was an ok movie. Some parts had us laughing so hard. Haha Eric liked it well enough, but said that he was just stressed out in behalf of the movie characters the whole time. It's true. It's one of those "Can things get any worse?!?" movies.

Afterwards we went next door and got $1 ice cream cones at Scoops and walked around the block. We spent the rest of the night watching my belly (baby) dance around and trying to figure out what part of her body kept bulging itself out my side.

No homework. No managing duties. No cell phones. Nothing but our little family enjoying ourselves together. That's why I love Monday nights.

32 Weeks- 8 Months

Today marks 8 months of this whole pregnancy thing.  Holy cow, 8 months.

Our car is in the shop, so I had to walk the whole 1.1 miles to my Dr.'s appointment yesterday... and then back! Here's the big accomplishment.... I only had to stop to use the bathroom once! That's seriously a big deal.

When the nurse called me to the back, she had to do a double take at me and then at her chart.

Her: "You're Noelle Hillam?"

Me: "Yup!"

Her: "The Noelle Hillam that my chart says is 32 weeks pregnant?"

Me: "That's me!"

Her: "My gosh, you sure do hide that baby well!"

I get that a lot... People asking me if I'm sure I'm as far along as I am. Sometimes I wonder myself! I sure don't look 8 months pregnant.

Here's a pic from a week ago, to give you an idea. In that top one I was sticking out my stomach as far as it would go! And the braces aren't really helping my cause. I swear I look like a bloated 12 year old!

But everything at the Dr.'s office looked great. I'm measuring right on, heart tones are where the should be, blood pressure is supreme. No swelling or anything so far.  I go back in two weeks to determine what position she is in. I'm almost 100% certain she's already head down though.

I also take pride in the fact that I can still paint my toenails with no problem. I can sit on the floor and get up, piece of cake. In fact, I was lying on the table in the Dr.'s office so they could hear the heartbeat.... The nurse told me to wait there while she wrote down the numbers really quick and then she would help me sit up. No need mam, I'm perfectly capable of sitting myself up, so I did. She was so shocked that she forgot which numbers she was writing down.

Overall feeling pretty good. Both nausea and fatigue are starting to come back hard core, but since I'm not in school or working anymore, those are both things I can handle. It's also become really, really hard to sleep at night. Our A/C -less apartment gets SO hot at night and I just toss and turn like crazy.

I've jumped on the garage sale wagon and have been selling our stuff like crazy! I've made about $150 so far and our apartment has never looked better! I love having it free from clutter and unnecessary stuff. Especially as we're trying to make room to house a whole 'nother human in here!

Tomorrow is Eric's birthday and I desperately want to do the following: Canal surfing, go to the hot springs, go on a nice long hike, go out for sushi etc. Do you notice a common theme? NONE of those are things I'm allowed to do while pregnant. Bummer. Dinner and a movie? Lammme, but doable.

Here's to hoping the next two months fly!

Love, Noelle

Free Woman + Update

School starts back up for Spring semester at BYU-I on Monday, and for the first time in 4 years, I won't be attending!

Because I graduated...

It kind of breaks my heart to be honest. I love school. I love my classes. Truth be told, I could have graduated with my bachelors a year ago, but I've been prolonging this day as long as possible.

Because 1. I've accumulated quite the little stash of continuous scholarships over the past four years, so I technically get paid more money to go to school than I would get working full time, out of school. and 2. I've taken so many fun classes this past year! Cooking, sewing, water aerobics, swimming, badminton, tennis, interior design, pregnancy, women's health, parenting etc.

Pretty much I feel like I've been getting paid to have fun and learn about cool stuff! I'm way sad to see those classes end, but so glad I had the opportunity to take them!

As much as I hate to admit that it's over, the timing is pretty great. I am currently entering my last trimester of pregnancy and am excited to just be able to get things ready for baby this semester and take these next three months easy.

Also, I still conveniently live right across the street from campus, and because I am the spouse of a student I still have full access to all of the wonderful activities and facilities that BYU-I/ Rexburg have to offer.

Now that I'm graduated, people keep asking me how the job hunt is going. Truth be told, I haven't done one ounce of job hunting. I have been an employee every day for the past 7 years and I'm excited to just be a wife and a mom right now. I kind of feel a little guilty when people ask, but as much as I love having a job and an income, I just really don't want to work right now! Is that so bad?

Eric has had this past semester off of school and it has been so fun to have a not busy/not stressed out husband! We have played and played and played and have absolutely loved spending so much time together. I'm really sad to see that end as he has a full load of tough classes coming up, but I'm excited to be able to help and support him the way that he has supported me through my last semester.

We're still managing Delta Phi Single Men's Housing. The guys are great, our owner is great, the location is great. We can't complain and feel so blessed to have this opportunity. Most married couples would kill for a gig this great.

Overall, life is pretty good and we're feeling pretty blessed!

LIfe Lately

1. We went to a Brian Regan show a couple weeks ago for Eric's grandma's birthday. I'd never really heard of the guy, but I was excited and Eric was stoked. I've never see that family laugh so hard in my entire life. It was so fun just to watch them! It was a good show, but I realized that I'm not huge into comedians. Comedians and demolition derbys... just not my thing.

2.  Every time I'm setting the table for a meal for Eric and I, I have to pause and think before I pick out the silverware to use. This is the most random thing, but I quickly learned after we got married that Eric and I have completely opposite utensil preferences! It used to be that I'd set the table with what I thought would be the proper utensil for the meal we were having... and then after the prayer, Eric would get up and switch his out for a different one! So here's the two rules I've learned to live by.
 
Rule #1: If I think that a spoon is the obvious choice for the meal we are having, get Eric a fork. And vice versa. For example: Last night we ate tortellini with a little spaghetti sauce. Obviously a fork would be the utensil of choice for this meal, you've got to stab the little things. WRONG. Eric prefers
his tortellini with a spoon. Literally every single meal we eat, we use opposite utensils. Funny huh?

Rule #2: Utensils are not created equal. We have large utensils and we have slightly smaller utensils. I've never really paid attention before. Eric MUST have the big spoon or the big fork. None of that small utensil business.  It drives him absolutely crazy. I, on the other hand, haven't ever given a second thought to the size of our cutlery. But I'm catching on.

I guess I should have seen this coming. When we were registering for our wedding, Eric didn't have very much opinion on a lot of the things we registered for, but oh my land, he spent his sweet time in the silverware aisle.

String Art Project

3. The second half of this semester has been so relaxing! I'm done with my huge Senior Project and just taking a few fun classes and Eric is done with his huge Dental Admission Test and is working with his Dad a couple of days a week. Our evenings are stress free and the fact that it is starting to get warm outside has opened up our date night possibilities 100 fold.

I had to re finish a lampshade for my interior decorating class

4. Speaking of the warm weather, I went running on Saturday. Well it was more quick shuffling with spurts of jogging intermingled in. But oh man it felt so good! I was so excited to go again on Monday morning (once I get back in the jogging habit, there is no stopping)... but... Rexburg decided to send us a blizzard out of no where. So being outside was out of the question.

 5. Valentines Day!
We had such a great Valentines Day. I'd been giving Eric a hard time the week before V-Day because I told  him he had to top what he did last year. We had only been dating for like 2 weeks when Valentines Day came around last year. I was still mission bound and thought I was dating this boy just for fun, so I wasn't expecting ANYTHING special on V-day. I thought we had a mutual agreement that this was not a serious relationship and in my mind that translated to: Valentine's day is not a big deal for us.

Then February 14th came. Right at 7:44 am (one minute before my alarm goes off) I was awoken to my roommate carrying a plate of warm french toast, eggs, bacon and apples with a heart that said, "Will you be my Valentine <3 Eric". What the?!?   It didn't end there, I came home from class at around 12:30 and found a dozen pink roses on my table. And then we ended the night with a homemade candlelit dinner and watched my favorite Disney movie, Fox and the Hound.  Needless to say, he did pretty good last year.

This year I woke up to breakfast in bed, heart-shaped french toast with strawberries! I wish I had a picture, because it was gorgeous and so delicious! He handed me my plate then went to get his... his plate was filled with all the crusts/scraps  leftover from my heart-shaped french toast. Baha. It looked awful!

We also got to go to a baby appointment on Valentine's day and hear our little girl's heartbeat. There was actually no Doctor in the office (Emergency delivery) so we were in and out in like 8 minutes. It was great.

Eric's parents had left on a cruise, so after our appointment we drove straight to IF to hang out with Madi. We ate pizza and sugar cookies and watched Ender's Game. It was just a good day! 

6. St. Patrick's Day.
So we wore green and we made some delicious Irish Soda Bread! Pretty festive eh?

Pinterest For The Win!

I've heard a lot of Pinterest horror stories. Crafts that no normal human should have ever attempted, cupcake recipes that make you wish you'd cooked up some cardboard instead, and just all around failed Pinterest attempts.

While I haven't tried anything extreme.. I've been surprisingly satisfied with my recent attempts to create Pinterest things on my own. Especially the recipes! Here's a few that we've had just this week and will definitely make again.

1. Chicken Roll-Ups.

I made this yesterday in a "Eric is going to be home for dinner in 20 minutes and we have NO food in this house" panic. Luckily, I remembered that someone had given us a can of crescent rolls and we had just purchased a small morsel of cheese (Seriously, why is cheese so expensive?!?) and voila! I made the following.

This is the picture on Pinterest, but mine looked just as good, if not better :)

Here's what you do: Boil some chicken, shred some cheese and roll out some crescent roll dough. Wrap them up, stick them in a pan and then pour one can of Cream of Chicken soup +1/2 cup of water over the top. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes.

Super easy, super delicious.. just not terribly healthy... I might throw some broccoli in there next time for good measure. Also. Note to self: Let the roll-ups cook in the oven for 7-10 minutes and then add the cream of chicken/water mixture. Cook for 10 more minutes after that. (To avoid soggy dough).

2. The Cookie Recipe that has Changed Our Lives.

No joke, we've made 4 batches of these cookies in the past two weeks. They're that good! I took them to my relief society and got rave reviews as well, so it's not just us.

The recipe for these can be found here: http://misssophisticate.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/oatmeal-chocolate-chip-cookies.jpg

They are made with 1/2 butter and 1/2 coconut oil, but you can double the butter if you don't have coconut oil. I personally love the flavor that the coconut oil brings and love that when I use that, I only have to use half a stick of butter. 

We seriously love these and they are twice as delicious the next day.

3. Apple Bran Muffins

So with baby on the way, we're trying our best to save money where possible. So we've ditched our beloved Frosted Mini Wheats and have dedicated ourselves to finding the cheapest cereal in the store. It happens to be Bran Flakes. Bleck.

I actually used to really like them, but my pregnant nose can't stand the smell of them for some reason. So... instead of forcing myself to gag down a bowl of those every morning... I've turned them into something delicious! And semi-healthy. Honey and apple sauce instead of oil and sugar!

http://www.neighborjulia.com/2012/06/low-fat-apple-bran-muffins.html

Low-Fat Apple Bran Muffins

Non-stick cooking spray
1 1/4 cups bran flakes
1/2 cup skim milk 
1 cup flour (whole wheat flour works well too)
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 egg, beaten
3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup honey
1 cup finely chopped apples

In a medium bowl combine milk and bran flakes.  Set aside and let soften into mush.  In a large bowl, combine dry products and make a well in the middle.  Set aside.  To bran mixture add egg, applesauce and honey.  Add bran mixture to dry products.  Stir just until moistened.  Fold in apples.  Bake at 400 degrees for 16-18 minutes. 
Note: Do not use pan liners as these muffins are really moist and will stick to the paper.  Instead use a non-stick baking spray with flour in it and spray down your muffin pan really well.  This recipe makes one dozen muffins. 

I love these!  They are moist and tasty and don't make you feel guilty for eating 6 of them. Big Fan.

I should also note that when ever I bake anything, I ALWAYS take it out of the oven at least 2 minutes before the recipe tells me too. I can't stand an over done anything and would rather have it soft and smooshy than dry. So my advice for these muffins... take them out at 15.

FAQ: Baby Hillam

Q: When did you find out you were pregnant?

A: We found out in October. We were both taking a full load of classes, on a couple sports teams and managing an apartment complex. On top of that, I was working 20 hours a week and serving in the Relief Society Presidency. So we were busy! And then I started getting exhausted! I'd come home and just fall asleep. No energy to do anything. I was taking 2-3 naps a day and falling asleep in class! (I NEVER fall asleep in class!) I started ditching my aerobics class simply because I was just so stinking tired! We took a pregnancy test and it came back negative. Oh I should also mention that I was always thirsty and using the restroom. After the test came back negative, Eric jokingly told me that I probably had diabetes. I didn't know he was joking and lost sleep over that for days! We decided to spend a few bucks and get a better test, so we did and one Sunday morning at 6 am, we found out we were going to be parents! Eric jumped up and down with excitement, I fell back asleep.

Q: Have you been sick?

In a word. Yes. I won't go into too much detail. I will say that I have spent more time on the bathroom floor then I ever thought imaginable. Eric thinks it's hilarious when I throw up. I can hear him in the other room trying to stifle his laughter. I'll admit, he has good reason to. These are violent episodes of gagging, gasping for air, dry heaves and all sorts of other noises I didn't know I could make. Add a tear stained, raccoon-eyed face and you'll see why he laughs. 

Q: Why didn't you tell anyone?!

 I don't really have a good answer for this one. A lot of different little reasons I guess. We told our family at about 9 weeks and then saved the big announcement for when we found out the gender. So don't be offended if you had no idea we were pregnant, hardly any one did :) I'm not really showing very much, so it was easy to hide!

Q: Did you want a boy or a girl?

A: We both would have been happy with whatever. But I've always heard that girl pregnancies are more difficult than boy ones, so I was hoping it was a girl because I didn't want to ever be more sick than I already was. My mom also had a hunch early on that it was a girl. My mom is ALWAYS right about these kinds of thinks (her hunches). So I piggybacked off of that until I had myself totally convinced it was a girl! 

Q: How did the ultrasound go?

It went great! She was doing a headstand so we saw right off that she was a girl. We could hardly see her face at all, so we didn't get too many good pictures of her face. For both of the ultrasounds, she was wiggling and squirming the whole time. They measured her up and looked for any warning signs and said that she was right on track and looked great!

This picture is from our first ultrasound. Eric practicing holding a baby.

Q: How did you tell your family?

We were planning on waiting til Christmas, but we spent Thanksgiving with Eric's family and I just slept the entire time and didn't eat any of their delicious food, so they probably just thought I was a lame-o. I couldn't hide it anymore, so one night we decided to tell them. Eric volunteered to say the blessing on the food and in the middle of the prayer he said, "And please bless our little baby that it will grow healthy and strong and that Noelle won't be sick anymore." Needless to say, that prayer ended quickly.

Q: Do you have any names picked out?

We have a handful that we both like, but we'll probably wait til she's born to decide on one.

Q: Due date?
She's due on July 25th. Right during finals week for Eric. I actually think it's perfect timing because I'll be graduated (in 5 weeks!!) and Eric will have just finished up Spring semester, so we'll have her for 7 weeks before school starts up again for Eric. It's also kind of funny because one girl who serves with me in the Relief Society presidency is due on the same day!

Q: Does Natalie know?
Natalie is my little sister on a mission in Ecuador. We tried to tell her at Christmas when we skyped with her but the connection was really bad. We showed her the ultrasound pictures and typed to her that we were having a baby, but she totally didn't believe it. So we kind of dropped it and thought it would be funny to not mention it again until we have the baby (Which will probably come on or around her birthday).

Really bad picture, but the internet was so bad that she was frozen like this alll the time.

Welp, hopefully we answered all your questions! We are SOOO excited to have this little girl be apart of our family! I can't believe I'm only barely half way done, but I'm hoping the next half will fly.

Thanks for your love and support!

Eric and Noelle

20 Weeks

Maternity Clothes? No, not quite. But this is embarrassing... When I'm sitting in class, I unbutton my jeans and sometimes forget to button them back up when I leave. Whoops!

Sleep: I snagged Eric's body pillow and have been sleeping a lot better lately.

Best moments: Planning for the future

Missing anything? Running! Oh I miss running and playing sports outside. I still can, but it's just too cold.

Movement? Here and there I will feel something. But nothing too strong yet. Except when I'm laying on the floor on my tummy... I get rebuked very strongly when I do that.

Food Cravings: I'm trying really hard not to give into my sudden, random food cravings. Eric does a good job at not indulging me. I did have a week moment a few weeks ago and insisted that I get a carton of fresh blueberries. I also wish more than anything that I could have a rare steak and a fresh peach every single night.... not gonna happen.  

Queasy or Sick?  Only throwing up about once a week (usually Wednesday). But I still can't stand garlic or onions and a few other specific dishes that I used to adore (Spaghetti Carbonara, Sushi, Quesodillas)

Gender: Wahooo it's a girl! I've been saying that it was since Christmas! SO excited!

Symptoms: Bad, throbbing headaches. 

THIS WEEK

This is the week that Eric and I have both been anticipating/dreading/anxiouslyawaiting/why-did-it-take-so-long-to-get-here?? for several months now.

Needless to say, it's a big week for us.
But let me rewind.

I haven't updated this blog in months. MONTHS I tell you! So why now? Because it's 10:32 pm on a school night and I am home alone in my little Rexburg apartment. I don't want to clean. I don't want to do homework. I didn't even make myself dinner. Two packages of fruit snacks and handful of tortilla chips  later... I'm blogging because I can't think of what else to do!

Eric, on the other hand is spending the night at his parents house in Idaho Falls, leaving me here all alone. The nerve right?! Just kidding. There is a very reasonable explanation.

 He has to wake up bright and early and drive to Pocatello to take the Dental Admission Test. Pretty much the test that determines whether or not he'll be accepted to Dental School (although we all know he's going to rock it). It's kind of a big deal and he's been studying like a mad man for the past month and a half. So to cut his early morning journey in half, he spent the night in IF.  Very logical reasoning, but heck, I should have just skipped school and gone with him. In our six months of marriage, we've never been apart overnight and sleeping in your own apartment all alone is scary! Yes, even in Rexburg, ID.

We're both so excited for this test to be done with. He'll start up his internship with his dad next week, and I'll have a non-stressed out husband for the rest of the semester!

But there's more. I'm graduating this semester!!! The final requirement I needed to fill in order to graduate is my senior project. So for my senior project, I'm putting on quite possibly the largest campus production of the semester. It's the annual BYU-Idaho Slam Dunk Competition.


  It's held every Winter semester, and this year me and another girl are running the whole show by ourselves. So far it's been really fun to plan and prepare for it, but my gosh it takes a lot of phone calls, begging and running around. We've worn ourselves out and are so ready for this event to come and go. It all goes down this Friday night and I couldn't be more excited. I'll have to write a whole post about why I decided to do this for the project and all the sentimentality it holds for me (Eric won the competition last year... we'd only been dating for 5 days when he won, but I was sold after that ;).

Essentially, the two huge stress points of our semester will be over in a matter of days, hours for Eric. Yayayayayyayyayayya! We haven't taken a single picture, gone out, done anything fun all semester simply because we've been so enthralled in these two projects and have been so stinking tired that we haven't wanted to.

So hopefully all that changes and after a weekend recovery, we'll be back to normal!

Wish us luck!

Love, Noelle

High Expectations

"Everyone is different when it comes to pregnancy". I've heard that time and time again. Some get sick, some don't. Some start showing in the first trimester, others just look chubby. Some grow thick, silky hair, others get stringy,dull hair. There's no way to know how you'll be until you're actually pregnant.

I went into this pregnancy thinking I had the Prenatal God's on my side. I know a lot of women have tough pregnancies, but mine wasn't going to be like that. I could imagine nothing but a blissful and happy pregnancy. After all, my mom always says that she loved being pregnant. I was certain I'd be the same way.

And then I got pregnant.

And now, I can't imagine...
....what my hair used to look like. I'm 16 weeks pregnant and haven't had a good hair day in ... 16 weeks. It's lost all of it's life!
....what it's like to have clear skin.
... what it's like to not gag when my husband breathes to close to my nose.
... ever liking or even tolerating onions/garlic and eggs. Even typing those makes me nauseous.
... what it's like to go a whole day without throwing up.
... having the energy to run around like I used to.
... not having a constant mouth full of saliva.
... looking cute in an outfit.
... what it's like to only cry when something is really, really sad or really, really happy.
... sleeping straight through the night without tossing and turning.
The list goes on, but you get the point :)

Pretty much, my world was turned upside down, because I truly was expecting 9 months of smooth sailing. What a silly, naive girl! In all reality, it really hasn't been that bad. I think I was just caught off guard because my expectations for preganancy were 1000x different.  That being said...

I could never have imagined...
 ... how my heart would leap when we saw that first ultrasound.
... how I could possible MISS someone so badly that I've never even met in this life.
... how my thoughts would be consumed by this little soul growing inside of me
... how miraculous it is that I have such an incredible power to create life.
... how my heart would race and my breath would catch every time the nurse would search for that little heartbeat.
... how my prayers would start and end with this baby.
... how excited I am for Eric to be a Daddy.
... how much I crave our ultrasound appointments.
... how much love I have for this little person.

Yeah it's been rough, but I sure wouldn't trade it for the world. I am in awe of what our bodies are capable of and I can't believe that I am lucky enough to be able to have a child of my own in just a few short months.

Whoops

So I posted about the Rust Reunion a few posts back, but after perusing through the pictures on my computer, I found the following gems that add to the gloriocity of the trip.

Seven Peaks

Rather than driving straight from Rexburg to Overton, we took a pit stop in Bountiful. Our brand new little nephew Porter was being blessed, so a lot of our Hillam family was there. We got up the next morning at 7am and headed off to Seven Peaks! I had never been before and we had the infamous "Pass of All Passes" AND it was the last day that it was open! We had to jump on it.

We really are attractive people, I promise. This picture is just.... yeah.

Ok, here's the thing. Heights. They have been my number one fear since... forever! Ah they get me. Here's the other thing, these water slides are INSANE. See that orange one right down there? It's at least 430,495 million feet high and then it shoots you straight down. You go belly first, so pretty much you're watching as you fall to your doom. There were two other ones on the back of this death tower that were even worse. Be still my soul.

But, I didn't want to be a weenie and I didn't want to ruin "Thrill-Seeker-Eric"s fun. So without a word of how terribly frightened I was, nor how I'd so much rather be in the lazy river with the elderly, I went.

And you know what? I was a champ! I went down every single one! Get this, Eric even made me go down first on the most terrifying ones because they even scared him! This should also be noted: That orange slide mentioned above? Totally was my favorite. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

Next on our agenda: The Clams

So this was our last day on the beach right? We'd spent 2-3 glorious days boogie boarding, sun bathing and playing like crazy. I grabbed Eric and told him we were going to go catch sand crabs. It's the easiest thing, as soon as a wave washes up, we stick our hand into the dirt and it fills with dozens of little sand crabs. 

So Eric and I walk out there and I say, "Lets see who can get the biggest one!" (I'm a pro, so I'm certain that I'll win.) Well the wave comes in, we stick our hands down and pull up our finds. 

Let's just say that Eric won. He straight up pulled up a giant clam! We've been going to this beach for years as a family and have never once seen any clams on the beach! How lucky was that??

Well obviously not that lucky, because Eric stuck his hand in again, and pulled out another one!

And another one! And another one and another one!

 By this time, my whole family (as well as random strangers) had gathered around, trying to find clams of our own. But we just couldn't do it! Eric tried to explain how he was finding them

"Look for their eyes!"he'd say.

 'WHAT EYES?!"

Eventually, we started to get the hang of it, and we were all pulling up clams before we knew it. But Eric still had found twice as many as the rest of us combined. He was a clam champ for sure. And pretty soon we had a whole cooler full of them!

It was seriously so much fun to dig them up. We had a blast and were bummed that we hadn't discovered this fun new game until the last day.

We had great plans for a good ol' fashion clam bake....until a nice lady on the beach told us that we were being extremely illegal and that we had better put those back unless we wanted to be served a big fatty fine + life in prision... or something like that.

Not wanting to upset the law, we said goodbye to our fabulous finds and Eric trucked them back out to the ocean.

 And then we went and had fish tacos for dinner instead!

Mission Reunion

So even though the whole mission thing for me didn't work out exactly how I expected, I still had the opportunity to experience a real live mission reunion. And it was a good one!

Eric has only been home from his beloved Brazil mission for just over a year.  I love hearing his stories about his mission and I can often relate a lot of what he talks about with the food and culture to my own little exursion to Peru.

So when we found out that his first mission president was hosting a reunion at Tucanos Brazillian Grill in Salt Lake, we were sold!

I'd never been to Tucanos, but I'd heard some pretty good things about it. This is just a picture from the internet, but it's entirely accurate. They waiters walk around with giant skewers covered in delicious meet! Then they just shave off whatever you want right onto your plate. It was awesome.

They also had an awesome buffet full of good stuff. I loaded up on the fresh mozzerella/balsamic vinegar/basil  balls and the sushi. I also tried the fried bananas and the pan de queso (I only know how to spell it in Spanish). Pan de queso, is this yummy little roll filled with cheese. The ones here were decent, but I like the ones we have at Sunday dinner better.

We finished off the evening with this beauty. Mango butter cream cake. It was seriously out of this world. We actually didn't even order it, but the couple who did had to leave early so we snagged it. Best. Decision. Ever.  Mmmm my mouth is watering just thinking about it.

I wish I would have gotten some pictures of Eric with his mission buddies, because that really was the highlight of the night. It was so fun to hear silly stories and to see Eric reunite with his friends. We're so glad we had the opportunity to go!