Signs of Christmas

I'm thinking, Mazee may be getting excited for Christmas too because this is what we woke up to the other morning....sitting in our bedroom door. I couldn't stop laughing for like 5 minutes, I thought it was the funniest thing. (Still can't stop laughing just looking at the picture.)Kenyan said he was a little creeped out.

25 Weeks and Giving Thanks!

I have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. I'm not going to list everything, but just a few...So bear with me and my list (in no particular order):
- A wonderful husband who supports me through my ambitious endeavors.
- Kenyan finally being able to put his degree to good use with his new job at Fidelity.
- Getting a new job with WGU so I can work from home and be with my baby.
- Home, food, clothing...the necessities.
- Mazee....I love playing with her!
- My parents, family, and friends.
- The Gospel
- A disease that I am able to treat and take care of.

But I think the thing I am thankful for the most this year is this little baby girl waiting to join our family. I was always worried about getting pregnant and how my health would be while trying to create a healthy growing environment for a little one. I have been so blessed during this pregnancy to not have any complications as of yet. Everything is looking good and we couldn't be happier. It has not been without a lot of prayers and fasting that things continue to go so well through the rest of this pregnancy. I am so excited to be a mom and can't wait for Baby Girl Sant to join our family!


At 25 weeks: (Give or Take)

Snow Storm??

Well, the "Blizzard of 2010" came and went, and all I have to say is.....we got about an inch of snow from it. We got at least 6" last weekend and there was hooplah over that storm! Anyway....at least Mazee enjoys going out to play in it.

Crib Bedding!

So after going back and forth and back and forth, we found some crib bedding that we love!! (Yes, Kenyan loves it too, phew!)

I need to preface the picture of the bedding with a little story:

One time when we were playing the circus game at Circus, Circus in Reno we won these stuffed animals...a giraffe, an elephant, and a lion. I loved them-they're so cute and fluffy and I made Kenyan keep playing with me until we had all 3. I always had a thought of doing a Noah's ark room when we had a baby. Well, we found this bedding and they go together perfectly! If our camera was working I'd take a picture of the animals so you can see them, but right now you'll just have to imagine until we get a new camera. :)

So we ordered the bedding and hopefully like it as much in person as we did online. (We're not going to paint the room like that, I have other ideas in my head...just can't wait to put it all together.)

Happy Birthday to Me!

I got the best birthday present ever!

On Monday night, Baby Girl Sant decided to finally let me know she was really in there. I was so ecstatic! And yesterday morning, I'm pretty sure she was singing Happy Birthday to me because she was moving all over the place. I can't wait to have her here!

Kenyan got me the sweetest birthday card that was "From the both of us." (Meaning him and baby, in case you didn't get that.) My favorite part was the end..."P.S. If you swallowed a baby monitor I'm sure you'd hear, "Happy Birthday mom!"

I love my family!

New Beginnings

After teaching for 7 years and 6 weeks, I have resigned. It was a bittersweet decision. I loved teaching....the ups, and the downs. I learned a lot about myself and grew in so many ways.

I have always had those kids in the back of my mind every year, and tried to find ways to reach them so they enjoyed coming to school, and would learn and progress along the way.

Teaching was a hard job, but it was very fulfilling. The hard times made it worth it when I got to see the lightbulb click on. Several months ago Kenyan and I went to Texas Roadhouse and the host that took us to our table was one of my first students. After we recognized each other he said, "You just made my night." Oh, that made mine!

After 7 years of putting my students first it is time to put my family and myself first. I accepted a job with WGU (Western Governor's University) as a mentor in their education department. I will get to work at home and raise my baby. I'm so excited for the opportunity that I have been given to be home with her.

So as I say good bye to one chapter in my life, I am so excited to start a new one. I wish the best to all of my students, past and present, but I know they're in good hands because I left some of the most amazing teachers I have known. Thank you to all of you for your love and support!

It's a Girl!

We're having a girl! We took a stop in Vegas on our way home from San Diego and my sister scheduled an appointment for us in the doctor's office she works out. They were so nice to bring us in and look at the baby!

She was quite modest at first and wouldn't move her legs, but after a little pushing her around she exposed herself. :) We are quite excited! I know she'll have Kenyan wrapped around her finger, even though he was a little disappointed it wasn't a boy to take fishing and go dig in the dirt with for worms. But I told him he can still do all that stuff with her. :)

So, here is Baby Girl Sant:

Happy Anniversary!

It was 3 years ago today that the most handsome man took me to the Salt Lake Temple to be married for time and eternity. I consider myself lucky and blessed. Kenyan is amazing. He is a hard worker, educated, considerate, positive, and he never gives up. I could go on and on.
I know it doesn't seem very long to most of you, but it's hard to believe that 3 years has already come and gone! We have some big changes ahead of us, and I'm looking forward to everything that lies ahead and spending it with my best friend!

Happy Anniversary Kenyan! I love you!

March 14, 2011

If you haven't noticed, there's a new little widget on my page. Baby Sant is coming-March 14, 2011....give or take some days.

We are so excited! And Baby Sant is going to have a couple other cousins right around the same age to play with.

Everything is looking good so far-I'm at the doctor all the time-which is fine by me. As long as we can do everything we can to get a healthy baby here and keep mom healthy too.

I haven't really been sick. I'm exhausted by the end of the day and sometimes not feeling well. And certain foods either sound good or bad. I'm grateful to be making it through teaching all day and not have to run to the bathroom all day. So far so good!

Motorcycle Diaper Cake

My friend and I made this diaper cake for our friend Marci for her baby shower. All of our husbands love to ride their motorcycles together. I think it turned out so cute and it wasn't too hard!

Surprise!

It was Kenyan's 30th Birthday yesterday.....and I surprised him with a "Hawaiian" themed birthday party. Usually he has an idea that I'm planning something, but he told me he really had no idea! Wahoo!

I made one of his favorite meals: Hawaiian Haystacks and we had a "roasted" pig for dessert.

Happy Birthday Kenyan! I love you!

Yellowstone!

We went on a quick weekend trip to Yellowstone a couple weeks ago after I was done with school. We went with my friend Amy, who was a terrific tour guide because she knows Yellowstone like the back of her hand, literally! Kenyan and I decided we need to do more trips like this because it's only 4 1/2 hours away!

The last time I went to Yellowstone was with my Grandma and Grandpa Johnson....that was like 20 years ago, and I believe my brother was there too. I don't remember a lot of Yellowstone so I had a lot of fun and we saw so many animals: grizzly bear, black bear, black bear cub, bald eagle (loved that!) elk, brand new baby elk, coyote, and lots and lots of buffalo. Amy always talks about the baby orange buffalo and how cute they are-she wasn't kidding! They are so fun to watch...one literally hopped on all 4's going across the road. Kenyan and I were a little nervous when they started getting really close to the car, but finally decided to trust Amy when she said we'd be ok. :) Love ya Amy!

Weekend Trip!

Several weeks ago Kenyan and I drove to Cali for a quick trip. Our destination: Camarillo, to see my favorite little sister, Brittany, in the play "Annie." We had lot of fun Beej! She took us to the Santa Monica pier-that was a first for both of us. I love going new places! We drove the PCH to get to Santa Monica and drove through Malibu. We're thinking about buying a beach house there, (lol) there were plenty for sale! Then we went to this yummy ice cream place in LA called Diddy Reise. Wow! You get to pick 2 cookies and the kind of ice cream you want, and $1.50 later we had the best ice cream sandwiches ever!

Brittany did great in "Annie." She was perfect as Grace, Daddy Warbucks' assistant. I was very impressed with the whole play-they did a great job with the costumes, props and scenery.

Thanks to Heather who let us use her house as a pitstop along the way, to and from. We left Vegas at 5:30 in the morning so we could spend a day in Disneyland. (I love Disneyland! And Kenyan didn't fight me, just couldn't believe we'd wake up that early!)

More Mazee

Introducing...Mazee

We have had Mazee for a whole day and we can't get enough of her! (And I think Kenyan likes her a whole more than he'll actually admit.)

I gave into the whining & whimpering last night and went and laid next to her in the laundry room for a minute til she fell back asleep. Then I slept on the couch and set the alarm to wake me up every 2 hours to take her out to the restroom. She did pretty well.

We've had a few accidents....surprise, surprise. :)

We took her to Kenyan's sister's house last night and she met Kodiak, their chocolate lab. We have one tough puppy-she totally held her own and kept following Kodiak all over!! She sure is tons of fun!

The Newest Member....

We have a new addition coming to our family.....tomorrow (so obviously, I'm not pregnant.) We are getting a puppy! I am so excited! She is a schneagle. (Isn't that fun to say?!) A schneagle is a schnauzer/beagle mix. I'll get some pictures up as soon as I can. The picture below is a picture the seller had posted of her:

Mr. Do-it-Himself/Amazing

I love Kenyan-he never ceases to amaze me. He got me a ceiling fan for the family room-which I was very excited about!

He installed it one day while I was gone, without any help. He says it wasn't a big deal and that it's just a ceiling fan....but I still say, "He's amazing!" I love it, and it fits our room perfectly! (FYI: I always knew that ceiling fans could go different directions, but I didn't know that you are supposed to set it a certain direction for winter and summer. Did you guys know this? I found this out while reading the end of the instructions for installing-such a silly thing, but I had no idea!)

Another reason why I love Kenyan: Kenyan brought home a beautiful Japanese scroll from his mission...almost 8 years ago. I wanted to get it framed for him for Christmas, but we found out that it would cost a pretty little penny. Michaels said it would cost over $1,000!!

So, Kenyan decides....he can build a frame for it himself. And guess what, he did!! For how much you ask? Around $80! Take that Michaels! The final product:

The picture doesn't do it justice, but you kind of get the idea. He had to make it slightly deeper because the scroll has a thick rod at the bottom in order to roll it up.

Last year we had a fun time ringing in the New Year our own "Rockin' New Year's Eve" style. We decided we liked having a theme to go with so this year we went Western.

We found this new game called "Bang!" If you have never played it, I highly recommend it! It's a little confusing at first, but once you get the hang of it, it is a lot of fun.

Here's some pictures of us ringing in the new year with a "BaNg!"

Bernice & Sean-I love Bernice's skirt!Aren't we cute? (Except for my face, I'm not a very good outlaw.)Marci & Jeff-Yee haw!Josh & Crystal....supposedly they were "not informed" of dressing up...hmmmm.BANG!!

Let me ask if any of you are like this...Kenyan and I are constantly wondering what to have for dinner almost every night. Then we end up going back to the grocery store every night to get what we need for dinner. Just a pain to be running back and forth all the time.

So, the other day when I was at Target they had a pad of paper that had every day of the week listed on one side and a grocery list on the other side. Easy concept-but I didn't want to pay for it, so I made one for myself. Starting today, after getting the grocery ads in the mail, I tried to plan out meals around what was on sale and what we already have in the pantry or food storage for the next week. We will get our grocery shopping done tomorrow and be set with dinner for the next week. We are also going to try and buy a few extra cans of food each time we go grocery shopping to help build our food storage. We have "officially" started a food storage now that we have a place to store it and we started to stock up on the last case lot sale. Any other great ideas for food storage? I had a great time remembering dating cans of food for my mom after she went grocery shopping and I was doing it for my own food the other day.

My Dinner/Grocery List...Hopefully I can keep this up!

The start of our food storage...it's not a lot, but it's a start. Necessities: Yellow Death (AKA mac & cheese) and Ramen

New Year's Resolutions

If anyone even still reads this....and just in case you really cared, here's my New Year's Resolutions:
1. Make sure my diabetes is back under better control. ( I kind of slacked off amidst the business of getting a master's degree and everything else.)

2. Be on the Ellen show. :) I know this one sounds like a long shot....but I have something I've been working on.