The end of our 2017 (over 2 months late)

Clearly blogging has been at the bottom of my priorities list for the past couple months. :) So has taking pictures, so those are few in number, but c'est la vie. I'll just cover Christmas/End of the Year stuff and do a post on current life in a different post.

CHRISTMAS

We got to spend Christmas with my family this year. We spent a solid 2 1/2 weeks in Fresno, actually! We stayed at my grandparent's house; my family's house is just a couple minutes away. My sister Carissa came over in the evenings when kids were in bed to watch cheesy Christmas chick flicks on Netflix while eating our traditional snack of stove-popped popcorn with M&M's sprinkled on top.

We were lazy bums for the week leading up to Christmas, I must admit. Lots of lounging, teasing, eating the batches of "failed" fudge my mom made, letting the kids play. Well... letting Nicole play. Austin wanted to be held constantly because he had a cough, was overtired, and was cutting 8 teeth at the same time. I had noticed a couple new teeth coming through at the beginning of December, but I didn't even realize he was cutting that many until a few days before we left to go home. 8 more teeth! He has a total of 16 now! Ridiculous. He was back to his normal, cheerful self towards the end of vacation once he got through the worst of the pain. But anyways... really though, I was such a bum. Not to mention I regress to being an annoying teenager when I'm around my siblings. (I can't be the only one, right?!? Haha!)

My aunt and uncle had a Christmas Eve party at their house, following which we did our traditional walk through the streets of my grandparents' neighborhood to look at the luminaries. After sticking Austin in bed, we did a quick Nativity program with Nicole and let her put out cookies and milk for Santa. Christmas itself was wonderfully relaxed and low-key.

POST-CHRISTMAS

Two days after Christmas, we all headed up with my mom's side of the family (all her siblings and their families, plus my grandparents) to a cabin up in the Shaver Lake area for our annual Coleman Family Cabin Trip. My dad was the only one not there, but other than that we were all accounted for! 14 adults and 16 kids all in one big house from Wednesday afternoon until Saturday morning! (I'm counting anyone over 18 as an adult in that tally.) There were many games played (both indoors and out among the trees behind the house), many movies watched, and lots of tasty food eaten. Nicole claims that her favorite part of the trip was the hikes that she went on, one with her uncle and one with Doug and me. Poor Austin was in the peak of cutting those 8 teeth, so for the second and third nights he would wake up at 9 or 10 PM and not let me put him down for a good 3 hours (although at the time I didn't even think of teething because I thought he was just over-tired, over-stimulated, and uncomfortable from having to sleep in a pack-and-play. He just needed pain management! SO sorry, Austin!)

Aside from the sad baby at night and me getting a little 12-hour sickness that started as we left on Saturday (hello, hurling on the side of the road), it was a good cabin trip. There was no snow this year like there was 2 years ago, sadly, but it worked out because we didn't have to try to fit our snow gear in our packed car for the long drive from Utah to California.

After a couple more days filled with a little New Years Eve party, a zoo trip, and finally seeing Austin act more like his normal, happy, non-teething self, we headed home with 3 of my siblings in tow so they could stay at our house for a day on their way up to BYU-I for the winter semester. And... that was our Christmas vacation, in a nutshell!

A few pictures from my phone:

Nicole's lounge spot for reading books.

 Nicole got to be an angel in a little nativity production in nursery at church.

 The bubble machine saw a LOT of action while we were in Fresno. The kids loved it!

Exploring the backyard at Gigi and Poppy's house.

 Austin with his mandrake (and proper auditory safety gear, of course!)

 The whole Coleman Clan! (Minus my dad)

Cousins + instagram filter + being silly

Aaaaaand this cute one I took with my DSLR of my kids with my parents :)

2 Weeks of Family

We've spent the past 2 weeks chilling with my family in California. It's the longest, I believe, that I've stayed in Fresno since Doug and I got married. There were zoo and park trips, movie nights, 3 different dinners with extended family, swimming, Nicole and Austin always had someone to entertain or hold them, and we got to see my sister graduate from high school! In fact, the only time I brought my camera out on the whole trip was to take a couple belated senior pics of her. I included two of my favorites, since every blog post needs pictures, apparently.

It was good that we stayed for 2 weeks because my poor mama got pneumonia and wasn't able to come near the kids for 5 1/2 days. No fun for a grandma who only gets to see her grandkids a couple times a year! On the plus side, I got to have Me'n'Eds pizza on two different occasions, not to mention going to Sweet Tomatoes, having Cheesecake Factory cheesecake, and eating a LOT of popcorn with m&m's during our various movie nights. Yep, tasty food makes me happy.

The kids handled the long 12 hour drive fairly well. Thank goodness for cheerios, food pouches, and Disney music playlists. Dear family, I wish we lived closer! Miss y'all already!

^^^Hey there fellas... she's cute, sweet, and single! :D :D :D Hahaha, love ya Carissa.

Fresno Trip for 2016

We try our best to make it out to California at least once a year to see my family (I managed to visit 3x last year!) and this year's trip happened this past week! I want to go back in a month for my grandparents' 50th anniversary, but after arriving home a few days ago with veeeeery swollen feet from sitting in the car so long, I'm wary about making the drive again - especially because Doug can't come. (Also... imagine trying to wrangle a toddler by myself at 7 months pregnant while trying to use a gross public bathroom! Ugh!) Flying is an option, but how do I make a toddler sit on my lap for a couple hours straight when my lap is disappearing with every passing day?! Pregnancy problems, yo.

Anyways. Thanks to accidentally leaving my charging cord at home and having a low battery to begin with, the camera only came out on one occasion, and I only got a couple pics. Swimming. And Nicole wasn't loving it. Oh well!

Overall, Nicole had a blast on this trip. She almost constantly had someone to play with, ate way more sweets than normal, saw some fun animals at the Chaffee Zoo, went swimming a couple times (but wasn't a huge fan), and she used up SO much energy. She took 3-hour naps on a daily basis and slept soundly through the night every evening. She's a trooper, and she also handled the car ride surprisingly well. It probably helped that I let her eat snacks in the car for once... ;)

We were staying with my grandparents, but went over to my family's house every morning once we were done with breakfast and ready for the day. Nicole would go to the front door, point at it, tell us it was time to go, and bring us her shoes because she was always so excited to get back over to my family's home and play. So sweet.

I get more and more reclusive each time I visit Fresno. Sorry, friends! Actually, I was reeeeally lazy this whole trip. I vegged on the couch while Nicole was entertained by my family. There were many homemade treats consumed, not a single day where I followed my exercise regime, and more than one occasion where I ate Me-n-Ed's pizza - because no trip to Fresno is complete without eating that glorious pizza! I wish I could have a Me-n-Ed's right by my house in Utah. *Sigh...

I don't regret all the no-bake cookies I ate, even though it resulted in me gaining weight a little too quickly. Time to reign it in for the next couple weeks so that I'm back on track again! I've said it before... I'm determined to not break 30 lbs for this pregnancy, you guys.

Thanks, family, for the good times! And thanks, Fresno, for having an awesome pizza chain. It almost makes up for the fact that it was over 100 degrees every single day. ;) Yuck. But it's okay, Utah Valley has welcomed us back with overcast skies and even a bit of rain! Summer thunderstorms, maybe????

California and Such

Nicole and I were able to fly out to California for a week to see my brother Johnathon get home from serving a 2 year mission for the LDS church! I've never waited in an airport lobby for someone to get off an airplane before, and it was fun to see him come striding down the hall in his suit with his hands in his pockets while my mommy cried (and, let's face it, she definitely wasn't the only one).

^^^First time meeting Uncle Johnathon

Reunions are so sweet. It was great to spend so much time with my family. There were lots of family dinners and Me'n'Eds pizza and All-American Chocolate Cake from Costco and Nicole demanded to keep me in her sights at (almost) all times. Someone's developed some stranger/separation anxiety! Sweet baby.

Speaking of Nicole, she was much more receptive to going swimming this time around. We were also able to put her in this super handy baby tube, so she spent half the time chilling in that... but we all love holding her, so she didn't stay in there for long.

Aaaaaand now you get to see my beautiful farmers tan. Whoot.

 ^^^The only downside to splashing... sometimes, you get water in your face :P

Nicole's hands and feet got so wrinkly in the pool! I just about died. Cute, wrinkly baby feet and fingers. GAH!

We went to Morro Bay the very next day after Johnathon got home. It was Nicole's second time going to the beach, actually. I never mentioned on this blog that we joined Doug at the end of his latest business trip a couple weeks ago and stayed in a beachfront hotel in Pacifica for a day. It was rather chilly there, but it was very hot and sunny at Morro Bay.

And I neglected to put on sunscreen.

The backs of my legs were on fire for several days. You'd think that after living in California for 18+ years of my life, I would know to never skimp on sunscreen.

Oops.

On the plus side, we found lots of sand dollars and sand crabs, and I got clam chowder for dinner! Nom.

 ^^^HUGE sand crab!

The trip was worth every minute, even with the pain from the sunburn. Ha. Those ultra white legs of mine needed some sun anyways.

It was Ryan's (most likely) last time seeing Nicole and me in person before leaving for his mission in October to North Dakota. We all keep telling him that he's going to be freezing! He doesn't even know. I mean, it never snows during the winter in Fresno! He doesn't even know.

{Bumpdate} 17 Weeks and Shades

Today's bumpdate is brought to you by California sunshine (whoo!) and purple-tinted sunglasses!

Shirt - H&M // Sunglasses - c/o Firmoo

But really though... these sunglasses. They're purple!!!!! I'm also pretty sure that they're now my favorite sunglasses. I really like how I was able to chose what tint color I wanted, as well as the frame and other features. AND guess what? You can go to the same website I got these from, Firmoo, and try your first pair FREE!!!!!!! And who doesn't like free stuff? You can check here for details.

If you don't take advantage of that, then this lovely picture describes all I have to say to you:

I call it the "stank face".

Now. Back to the bump.

How far along: 17 weeks

Baby is: 5 inches, or about the length of an orange or baked potato

Symptoms: I still have headaches if I don't drink enough water. And I'll get random twinges from my abdominal area if I twist the wrong way or move too quickly after sitting still a long time. All part of being prego!

Sleeping: I'm still sleeping pretty well, but I have weird dreams nearly every single night. I don't remember most of them once I'm awake, but I remember having dreams.

Food cravings/aversions: I still want ramen all the time. Chocolate is also good, but I always want that. I've also become fond of dipping carrots in Cafe Rio creamy cilantro dressing. It's so good.

What I'm missing: Being able to go on roller coasters. Doug mentioned Disneyland the other day and I made a face thinking about all the rides that I would not be able to go on if we took a trip there right now.

Gender: We find out in just a couple weeks!

Wedding rings on or off? On!

Happy or Moody? Happy :)

Belly button in or out? Definitely still in.

Maternity clothes: I'm still fitting in my pre-pregnancy clothes. I haven't even bought any maternity clothes yet. I should probably get on that though because, as you can see in the above pictures, my bump is starting to show a little. It's only a matter of time.

Movement: I swear I've felt some kicks. They're just the lightest little flutters and taps, but I'm pretty sure they're the movements of the baby! It's kinda cool!

What I did/got for baby: While we still haven't bought anything, I decided that while we're here visiting family in California that I should go through some of my old stuffed animals and take the ones that are in great condition for my baby to have. We have a nice bag of stuffed animals all baby-ready now!

What I'm looking forward to: The kicks getting strong enough for Doug to feel them.

Best moment of the week: Feeling the first little tap that I was sure was a kick. I was lying in bed concentrating on my baby and all of a sudden - *tap! It was so cute and unexpected! It's also been fun to see people I know from here at home and have them say congrats :)

Weekly Wishes 8.19

I am currently blogging to you from the hot, sunshine-filled land of California. We're visiting my family, so pardon my lack of blogging. We'll be back before you know it! Until then, let me do a quick report on my goals and such! I really love this link-up, so I just couldn't resist, even though I'm on vacation!

My goal last week was to completely clean my apartment in preparation for our vacation. I am pleased to say that our apartment looks pretty good... except for our storage closet. I can never seem to get that thing organized! I started on it, and I think the biggest thing I need to take care of in there is organizing all the holiday decorations and all of my gift wrapping supplies. Other than that closet, though, I'd say our place looks pretty dang good!

This week, my main goal is to relax and keep my mind off the upcoming school semester. The last thing I need to do is think about which books I'll need to buy when we get home and the preparations I need to do for my ballroom auditions and all that. For now, this is ME time.

I also want to go walk around Old Town Clovis with Doug sometime this week. Downtown Clovis is pretty cute with it's cobblestone sidewalks and old store fronts that contain tons of antique shops and art stores and boutiques. We're staying at my grandparents house, and they live pretty close to the area. I've decided that we need to spend some time there. Now I just need to figure out when to fit it into our schedule! There are so many people to see and things to do! Sometimes, vacation hardly feels like vacation at all, ya know?

Well folks... I've got things to do. Friends to see. Movies to watch. Frisbee to play. The Fresno LDS Temple to clean. Ice cream to eat. Pools to swim in. Siblings to tease. Naps to take. You get the picture, yes?