Welcome to parenthood!

So a few nights ago while in bed trying to fall asleep I was thinking of how fun it's been to look around our apartment and find little remnants of a baby everywhere...a bunch of little signs that there is DEFINITELY a baby living here! Anyway, I decided to compile a little collection of pictures...here they are! We sure love you Brie! :0)

Brie laughing...oh, the cutest thing!

Saturday afternoon had been kind of a rough day for Brie...she had been extra fussy, didn't nap well, etc. However, at one point in the evening Bryan was holding her and singing up a made up song to her when she cracked up laughing! Thankfully "grandma" was there to film it because it was a priceless moment! :0)

Little Cupid Kisses

So I finally figured out how to upload videos on my blog. I don't know why it took me so long...it was SUPER easy and straight forward! This is a little movie clip of Aunt Rachie and Brie. She was flying Brie over to give me kisses. It was the CUTEST thing ever! Hope you enjoy! :0)

Gerbera Daisies.

So, I have a love-hate relationship with Gerber Daisies...they are one of my FAVORITE flowers, but they live for such a short time! As for the beautiful bouquet Bry gave me for Valentine's Day, these are the five remaining :0( I thought I might as well be optimistic about the whole thing so...

Here are our five beautiful contestants! Which one do you think will live the longest?! Any ideas? :0)

My sweeties!

I think this year's Valentine's Day was the best ever! To start it off Bryan and I tag-teamed making heart shaped french toast and inviting my family down for a mini breakfast. A little bit later Bry came home (he'd been out with some others in the ward collecting cans for the Food and Care Coalition) with a beautiful bouquet of BRIGHT and CHEERY gerber daisies!!!

For lunch we had heart shaped grilled cheese and BBQ sandwiches with tomato soup and the three of us (Bry, Brie and me) spent the afternoon together! It was so fun having Brie a part of this year's Valentine's Day! She is definitely the LOVE of our life!

That evening Bry made me an AWESOME dinner! He planned it all out...he was going to make it all, we were going to dress up and then eat at 6:30. But since having a baby seems to throw plans and schedules out of whack :0) I helped him finish up the dinner and set the table....and we ate in our Saturday grubbies. It was great! Nice and relaxed, delicious food and so fun to be spending Valentine's dinner cozy and at home with Bry! (OH...for dinner Bry prepared steak, baked potatoes (with sour cream and chives), asparagus, garlic crescent rolls and lemon water. YUMM!)

Bry also surprised me with some Valentine's gifts...a new gratitude journal (our first one is just about finished), dove chocolate hearts (he knows how much I LOVE chocolate), a bag of conversation hearts AND a HUGE pack of AA batteries so that I am never again caught off guard when the camera batteries die! What a guy. I SURE DO LOVE HIM!!! :0) :0) :0)

OH, I can't forget that my dad brought home a sugar cookie (complete with our names written on top with frosting.) for each of us! Earlier in the day I had mentioned that growing up my FAVORITE Valentine's tradition was when he'd come home from work with sugar cookies (personalized with our names). He had stopped doing it several years ago, and apparently he had no idea that we had even liked that tradition. Needless to say that after having told him he surprised us all by bringing some home like old times! Thanks dad!

We finished the evening off by watching "Emperor's New Groove" while I cut Bry's hair...such fun times and what an awesome day!

Je t'aime, Bryan! Ish liebe dish!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

How grateful we are to be blessed with such wonderful family and friends. We sure do love you all!
Happy Valentine's Day! :0)

Collages of Mine.

Let's be honest, since Brie's birth I have taken many a picture and made many a collage :0) Yesterday I decided it'd be fun to set up a blog so I could easily share my latest collages with friends and family. It's password protected (I don't want Brie's pictures to be floating out there on the internet!) so if any of you would be interested in "subscribing" just let me know and I'll send you an "invite" email.

Twin Ground Hogs.

So yesterday, February 2nd--Ground Hog Day, was my 26th birthday! Yep, 26! Crazy, eh? It was a wonderful day thanks to my dear family and friends. THANK YOU! :0)

The women on Bryan's side of the family (Julia, Julie, Kim, Heather, Liz (and Lilli :0)) and Katie took me out for lunch at BYU's Legend's Grille. We had a great time chatting and eating and just being together! We decided that we definitely need to get together more often!

Here I am with my adorable niece (Liz and Alan's daughter) Lilli...we're doing our fishy faces! One day I saw her doing this face and thought it was so cute. She turns TWO on Saturday, and I can not believe what a big girl she is getting to be! What a cutie! And so fun to have in the family! :0)

Me and Bry at Brick Oven...my family took us all out for dinner! You can't beat Brick Oven, it's just classic and so much fun! Thanks Pops and Biscus for taking us out! :0)

For part of my birthday present Rach gave me an ADORABLE memory can that she had put together. For probably at least a half hour we read through the memories, reminisced, laughed and just had a good time! perfect way to spend a twin birthday!! :0)

Matt (Elder Sheets) sent us a Christmas/Birthdays package this week...all the girls in the family got a scarf from the Ukraine. Being the silly Sheets girls that we are, we couldn't help but do "Match Maker" poses! I sure love my sisters and how thoughtful of Matt! (And thanks mom for being our photographer!)

Anyway, what a great birthday! One year older and wiser too ;0) Like I said, it really is my family and friends that made this day special.

And last but not least, I just wanted to thank my mom for giving birth to me and raising me. (Being a mom now brings a hold new meaning to those two things.) You have been such a WONDERFUL mother! I couldn't have asked for anyone better. Thank you Biscus, I sure do love you!

(Me and my cute mom! I think I was almost nine months pregnant here. And hey, it's probably appropriate to choose this picture when I'm mentioning BIRTHdays and MOMs :0))

New do's.

So apparently I'm not smart enough today to figure out how to order these pictures so that they are chronological. Oh well...I'll just post them backwards :0)

Em, Tim and I decided to hang out and try a new recipe. This one was "Raspberry cream cheese coffee cake" or something to that effect. In any case...it was a major hit! SO yummy! I decided to use a heart cookie cutter to cut out a few pieces and thought it'd make a great Valentine's treat.


A picture of the real deal from the cook book. Of course nothing ever turns out quite like the recipe says!

Em, Tim and I at work in the kitchen. Fun times! :0)

Which brings me to...my hair cut! It was time for a change. It's not quite as short as I would have liked, but I think the girl at David Douglas did a nice job.

Yeah for haircuts! :0)

Venturing out to the mailbox!

So let's face it, Brie and I don't get out much, especially Brie! This morning I needed to take some letters out to the mailbox and decided it was a great excuse to snuggle her up (in an ADORABLE snow suit...thanks Kristina! :0)) and take her out with me. Here she is looking so cute...
And of course, since I am a picture fanatic I asked my dad if he take a picture of our mini walk! Being the great and proud grandpa that he is, he accepted! :0)

Weekend with my sweetie!

Bry ended up being able to come home Friday evening which was a fun treat :0) We made lasagna for dinner and got ColdStone for dessert. It was great being together again after five days without seeing each other!

As a surprise for Bry coming home for the weekend I decided to decorate for Valentine's early. I didn't want to spend a lot of money so I bought a few small decorations, a bunch of fun Valentine's paper and then decked out the apartment with little cut out hearts. It may have been a BIT much, but I wanted Bry to feel LOVED! :0) Here is a picture showing some of the cut out hearts.

Nursery Frogs.

For my baby shower gift one of my visiting teachers made this adorable frog quilt. For those of you who don't know...I LOVE frogs! I decided to hang it up in the nursery (well, the "baby corner" :0)). Anyway, this morning I finally decided it was time to do a little photo shoot with Brie and the quilt. I sat her up on her little changing table, but every time I went to take a picture she would slump over to the side. SO, I decided to use frog stuffed animals to hold her up! Here is the result...

I love the face she is making here...it fits right in with the frogs! :0)

What a cutie!

I love this picture...You look at Brie then me and Bry and wonder where she got her genes! :0)

One of our first family pictures!

Briana Joyce Graden :0)

So Tuesday it will already be SIX weeks since Brie's birthday...I can't believe it! She is already getting so big! My mom, Rach and I measured and weighed Brie at her 1 month mark and she was over 9 lbs.

Life is good. I feel SO blessed to be living in my parent's basement apartment. They (as well as the Gradens) have been wonderful to help us out FREQUENTLY! I don't know how I'd stay sane without their help!!

As many of you know Bryan has officially started his first busy season with KPMG. He spent last week in Seattle and got to spend Saturday with Grandpa and Grandma Graden (which was a special treat!). I picked him up from the airport yesterday evening...it was SO nice having him home, even if it was for less than 24 hours!! He left this evening for Logan where he'll be spending the next five days. It definitely isn't what we prefer, but we feel that it is the right thing for now...and we know that the Lord has blessings in store...we just need to open our arms to receive them!

Anyway, Brie's already had her "midnight snack" and is back in bed which means that I need to be sleeping too :0)

I'll post more later!

I've been tagged.

I've been tagged by Rebecca!
Here are the rules:
1. Go to your pictures.
2. Upload the 4th photo from the 4th folder.
3. Explain the picture.
4. Tag your friends.

(For those who may not know...as far as I understand, when you are "tagged" you follow the instructions given by the person that tagged you and then you "tag" other friends who have blogs.)

As for the explanation of this picture...these are just some little cards that I made for Mother's Day.

Ok, I tag Julie and Meghan S!

Me and the baby's corner...

I am practically nine months pregnant here and am anxiously awaiting the arrival of our little sweet pea :0)

When oh when will Brie's birthday be?! :0)

So tomorrow is Brie's due date and still no sign of her coming! She's going to pull a fast one on us! I finished student teaching over a week ago, and you'd think I'd be overjoyed to have so much free time on my hands, but I honestly thought I'd go from being busy with student teaching to being busy with a new little bundle of joy! But, the Lord had other plans in mind and I am trying so hard to be productive and to ENJOY having so much down time! Life is funny that way, eh? :0) In any case, I keep praying that she'll come when she needs to and when it's best for her. So we'll see when she wants her birthday to be!!

Sweet Pea!

So I am down to about two weeks now til our sweet pea is due...and I couldn't help but write a few things. First off, Bryan and I are getting SO excited! I officially finish student teaching on Friday, Bryan takes his last CPA exam on Saturday and we're thinking Sunday would make a great birthday! ;0) Plus it is my sister Emily's birthday...so it'd be double the fun! Tonight before Family Home Evening I was laying on the couch with my feet up for a bit. Bry came over and was talking to sweet pea. We started jokingly saying to her, "if you're going to have your birthday on (such and such a date) tap twice..." Of course she didn't respond...she's trying to keep us in suspense...but it was worth a try ;0) Anyway, life is great! Bry and I are staying busy, but feel SO blessed and supported by the Lord!

I've been tagged!

(And don't even know exactly how this works :0))

3 Joys--
Bry! :0)
Feeling sweet pea move
Peaceful and beautiful "early" morning drives to American Fork High School

3 Fears--
Starting team-teaching tomorrow. French 2 and 3 here I come!
Yucky spiders in our basement apartment
Going in for a rhogam shot! (It honestly won't be THAT bad.)

3 Goals--
Getting to bed by 9:30 on a consistent basis (so that I can get up by 5:30 or earlier)
Finishing up my portfolio for my BEEDE (ESL endorsement) Practicum
Going to get my rhogam shot

3 Current Obsessions--
Taking leftovers for lunch!
Keeping our apartment spic and span
Getting organized in my student teaching!!

3 random surprising facts--
I finally cut my hair
I am back in the ward where I spent my teenage years
Three months til I am due! :0)

Hmm, I don't know who would respond to being tagged, BUT...I tag Julie & Walt, Meghan, and Liz & Alan!

Settling in and student teaching.

Bry and I have officially moved into my parent's basement apartment. My dad (and Bryan) spent hours and HOURS last week finishing up the kitchen (which is all remodeled and looking great)!! We are excited to be settling into our new home! :0) We still have some unpacking, organizing, and decorating to do, but it's coming along. I'll have to post some pictures when I get a minute.

Today is my first day of student teaching (French) at American Fork High School. Thankfully I will just be observing for the first two weeks, so I get to ease my way into the high school classroom scene. I am nervous for when it's up to me to take over all six classes, but I know that the Lord will bless me with amazing learning and growing experiences...so I need to choose faith instead of fear!

Other than that Bryan and I celebrated our first anniversary last weekend (23 August). It's crazy to think that a year has already passed! We both agree that it has been the best year of our lives and we're so happy to be married!!! :0) We have really enjoyed spending so much time together this summer, and are excited for all the adventures of this fall and especially to welcome our little sweet pea into our family in a few months! Life is great!!