Temple Square Lights and 25 Weeks

Trevor's family has a tradition of going to see the temple lights and then going to dinner with Grandma Edwards. This year was MUCH different then last year. Last year: we were just dating and I mean just barely dating and it was ffreeeezzzzziiiiiinnggggg. This year: we've been married for 6 months, and have a baby 5-months in the making, and it wasn't too cold. What a difference a year makes!
We walked around and saw all the lights. I think I paid more attention this year to how pretty it was because I wasn't struggling to stay warm. My favorite was the nativity scene and hearing the little kids name the people and tell the story.
Then we went to Village Inn like always and had a good time there. This year was fun, but we are looking forward to next year when we can take McKinlie to experience this fun part of Christmas.




Miss McKinlie is 25-weeks today! She is growing like crazy. I swear she never sleeps and I love the little personality that I am seeing from her. I'm so excited to have her around next Christmas and experience everything with her.

23 weeks!

Mckinlie is 23 weeks along and still moving like crazy, what a surprise. We got a 3D ultrasound and pointed out were features of baby that Dee and I have, I am hoping that the ones she has of me she will grow out of! The ultrasound shows her having "healthy" sized cheeks and she weights half a pound more than the average at her age. She is growing fast and she is active. It's a lot of fun to see her kicking through the her belly home. It's amazing cause you can almost sense her personality at this age when trying to get her to cooperate with ultrasounds and when she dances to her favorite music. We love her and are excited to see her soon!

The bun in the oven is half-way cooked

Ms. McKinlie is at her 20-week half-way point. The last time we got an ultrasound, a week ago, she was moving around like crazy. That's nothing new. There hasn't been an ultrasound where she hasn't been moving around at high-speed. During the last visit, she had her arm behind her head and her mouth was moving like crazy. I wonder who she got that from.....
McKinlie is a very active and happy little girl. She never sleeps, and is a fan of loud music. She particularly goes crazy for Transiberian Orchestra and Tim McGraw. She also kicks everytime Daddy comes home and she hears him.

Her room is just about there. We did some fun things with it, and I've made a list of baby essentials that we're going through. It's great that I've had so much nannying experience because I know what is useful, and what things I like and don't like.

20 MORE WEEKS UNTIL WE MEET LITTLE GIRL!

Bows, Tutus & Pink......It's a girl!!

On October 13th after work, we went down to Fetal Studios in SouthTowne Mall. We decided to find out the sex at 14 (almost 15) weeks. It was a looonngg wait outside on the couches. Finally we were called in and began the ultrasound. The Dr had a little bit of trouble seeing, because there wasn't a lot of room. Apparently, I hadn't been drinking enough water. We saw her kicking away, like she is every time we "visit" baby. She is going to be a little mover I think. Finally, he could see "down there" and declared this child a GIRL! Wahhhoo. I'm so excited for all things girl. I found a blog on how to make tutus and hair clips. We spent the weekend after that, doing little projects for her room. I'll post those as soon as we're done.

We've decided on McKinlie Rae, and are so excited for her to arrive. Due date: April 08,2011.

First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the BABY!!

"When a chapter of your lifebook is complete, your spirit knows its time to turn the page so a new chapter can begin. Even when youre scared and you think youre not ready, your spirit knows you are."

So at times is seems we might not be ready and I know that other people might think we are crazy but it was definately clear that it was time to turn the page and start a new chapter in our lives. After being married just about two months we are going to have a baby! It seems kinda sureal at times but other times when we think about it, we cant help but smile.

There is a good debate if it will be a boy or girl, most of the family votes boy and in the past family has been pretty accurate so I guess for now, boy it is. We have had many discussions on names and have it all pretty well planned out, a list of 4 boy names and 4 girl, not that we will need that many. Our top choice for a boy is Mckay and for a girl it Preslie. We will update as the news breaks when that time comes, for now we are enjoying our time as newleyweds and enjoying time just as us together. The next chapter will be challenging but it will be fun and fulfilling for sure.

We are excited for Mckay or Preslie to join our forever family!

-Trevor

We have made the move to HEBER!

So...we lasted 1 month in Salt Lake/Sugarhouse. We didn't like it at all. I could never live in a city that big again after living in Midway. It's loud, crowded and there is no fresh-air. Trevor lived in Heber his whole life basically, and I've been there for a year. It's where we met, and started our story. Of course we're partial to the area.

Goodbye Salt Lake, Heber here we come!

We have lived in the new apartment for 1 week and we love it so far. It's a basement apartment underneath a business, and it's SO quiet. The only noise I've heard so far is some heels clicking across the floor. Compared to the last apartment...this is heaven! It's cheaper than the old one, and is in a nicer area. We go to fun concerts-in-the-park weekly and love being close to Trevor's work, familiar places. Not to mention, the fresh air!
I'm never moving from the Heber/Midway area again.

We live in a Hicktown...and LOVE IT!

So the other weekend, I went to my first Demolition Derby. In Heber, the town Trevor grew up in, it's a yearly thing. It's a HUGE deal. I love Nascar, and so I figured I would love this too. BOY WAS I RIGHT!
We went to a traditional BBQ before the Derby held by Trevor's friend, Peter. It was nice, but strange because we didn't really know anyone there. So we made fun of people dressed up weird and had fun by ourselves.
Then we were off! I forgot my glasses, so luckily Mark & Connie were able to bring them to us. I didn't want to be blind during something so exciting!!

Overview:
-crashes
Some little and boring, and a few roll-overs and exciting crashes

-strange people
Hicks that were super extreme. I should've taken pictures.

-Fireworks
Loved it!


Next Year, we can take our child to the derby, and they WILL love it. We've decided to train them from infancy to be in the Derby haha. YEE-HAW!

Vivanne the Volvo

After all these years of nannying, and with us having our own family soon, I figured a needed something BESIDES a 2-door, compact car.
We decided to start looking, and it was a fairly quick process. We searched at dealers and their offers were so not reasonable with what we wanted to spend. Then we went to....THE CAR AUCTION!!
They hold them every Saturday afternoon. We went there, were given a list of cars and prices & they release you into this cage of cars, basically. You look around at all of them, decide which ones you want to bid on, and then you go into this garage to start the auction. These guys sit up there and do their weird auctioner voice things. They had to bring in ALL OF THE CARS. I think there were over 100. Anyways, I was really anxious. We found this Volvo that we REALLY wanted, and I was afraid someone would try to bid against us. It was a nice car and I was pretty sure we weren't going to get it for what we were willing to pay for it. The Volvo came through the line pretty quickly, luckily and only one other guy bid on it a few times. Luckily, we won in the end. We went out, took more pictures and said our farewell to VIVIANNE the VOLVO and went home. We got everything worked out with the bank and picked our baby up a few days later.
So far she has been a great car, and awesome for car-seats and huge strollers. That's what we really needed.

Welcome to the family Vivianne. We look forward to many happy memories with you.

Isis and Orion

After watching Caddie for almost her entire 2-years, I've started with a new family. I have to say, I am starting to get over Caddie. Mostly because I'm super busy. But who wouldn't be considering I have a 2-year-old and 9-month-old to look after. I don't have TIME to mourn over Caddie. Plus, just look at these innocent little faces. Who wouldn't love them?

They lived 5 minutes away from our old apartment in Sugarhouse. Now that we have moved back up to Midway, it's not so convienient. But..I'm used to commuting.

What I have learned from these kidlets:

-I do NOT have the energy to have my kids this close together and keep my sanity. I can handle it now, but I don't watch them 24/7. I would be constantly tired and lose my mind. I'm thinkin like.... 3 years is a good spacer.

-I'm either super immature, or this little girl has some great humor. After teaching her about how a car needs gas to run, she went around asking me, "Do you have gas, do you have gas?". I normally would just block it out after awhile...but we were in PUBLIC and she was saying it LOUDLY.

I could start a blog of the funny things she says and it would be more interesting than a blog about any of my life.

-Babies are surprisingly cunning.

-Kids can fall and get bruises and it's OK. I swear with Caddie it was the end of the world if she had any sort of mark on her. Kids are wild, things happen. As long as they are safe and nothing is broken, you can't keep them on a leash at all hours of the day.

-I can be so frustrated when the day isn't going right and I get a "snuggle" from Isis, and a "head-touch" from Orion and it's all fixed.

-Children know how to love unconditionally. We need to take more lessons from their book.

Our Journey to Eternity

On June 19th, 2010 I married my best friend. It was the easiest and best decision I've ever made. The most important part of the months of planning, and the crazy stressful days leading up to that one special moment, was that although the festivities would technically only last 1 day, our happiness and marriage would last for eternity. I wouldn't have it any other way and am very glad that it wasn't just, "until death do you part."

Here are a few details of the day:

(I do this mainly for myself so that I can remember every part of our special day)

Trevor and I drove down to Ephraim the evening before, and spent a fun night with our friends Mckenna and Jeff Lister. We went to this cute store inside this home and got snow creamies. They were the strangest things, but so so good. Then we went to the Manti Pageant. That was my first time ever. It was awesome to be able to be on the temple grounds, the night before we were going to be sealed in it! It's sad to admit, but I really just stared at that beautiful temple the entire time. Considering mine and Kenna's ADD, we lasted awhile during that pageant, but finally we just couldn't sit still and we left halfway through. I remember us going back to the apartment and I think I actually decided to color my hair the night before my wedding at midnight. Crazy, I know. We ended up going to bed super late and Trevor and I spent our before-wedding-night on Kenna and Jeff's couches. Don't worry, we slept on different couches and kept our distance. Risky, I know.

Morning-of the wedding:

I,being the spontaneous weird one, got up for some reason and went to Walmart to get flip-flops. I honestly don't remember why. Then I got kinda nervous so I drove around town for a little while. I got back and Kenna and I ran to the Salon next to her house to have my makeup done. That lady was a little to...hollywood for me or something. She did some crazy makeup that I would have never done, but whatever. We thought we had some extra time for bridals before the ceremony, so I put my dress on and we were off to the temple. We got there and finally after all those months, that moment was there.

I felt like we had a lot of waiting, but finally, they released us out of our waiting rooms and I got to meet up with Trevor. We walked into a room full of our family and friends. Walking up that spiral staircase was strangely beautiful and that's one of my most favorite moments. I sadly don't remember everything that the sealer said, but it was wonderful....and FINALLY we were sealed.

That evening we had a family dinner at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. It was wonderful but it all flew by.

Trevor and I spent the first night in the Little America in SL, the next night in our new apartment, and then we were off to California. During our week there, we relaxed, played at the beach, explored the town, saw some movies and went swimming. It was so awesome to have that week to spend with my best friend and I wouldn't change a thing!

I'm so excited with what's to come with Trevor and what our eternity brings!

The New Place

Before Pictures

Entry

Bedroom (don't mind the existing furniture and bra)

Living Room

Kitchen (it's not pink, just looks that way)

After many hours of online searches and walk through's, we finally found our first place. It's located around 2000 East and 2100 South area, it's a nice older area, maybe a few sketchy neighbors but for the most part, much better than our other options and it's close to school.

One of the main things we looked for in finding an apartment is how willing the landlord would be in letting us decorate and paint. This apartment will allow us to do some painting upon approval so we are all over that. We've picked out colors and know how we are going to decorate. We really want our apartments to feel like a home and a permanent place, so with a few painted walls and decorating, we will make it ours. After pictures to come.

Post Dedicated to my Trevor

I was looking through my my old school notebooks & I came across this list that I had to make:

10 things I'm looking for in a man

-a best friend

-positive attitude

-strong testimony

-organized

-bright future

-reliability

-good-looking person

-a great provider

-patient

-caring personality

I wrote this years ago when I didn't know Tee. He is all of these & more. I couldn't ask for a better best friend. I can be hard to handle. I'm disorganized, and get these crazy ideas. I couldn't ask for a more caring, and loving person.Everything worked out so perfectly. It was definately a blessing from Heavenly Father. Let me tell you the story:

I worked as a nanny in Salt Lake for a cute little girl & I lived with my parents in West Jordan. Every night my friend Karen and I, would go for walks and talk about the men that we were going to meet someday. I had hardly dated, so I felt like nothing would happen for me for a long time. I wasn't really into dating either, because I kinda liked doing my own thing. The family that I worked for, decided to move to Midway for some strange reason. I commuted from West Jordan to Midway every day and it was not fun. It was usually an hour long drive back and forth and I'd have to leave around 5 or 6 in the morning. I had NO life. I did this for 6 months and it started getting old. We mutually decided that we couldn't keep doing this forever and they started trying to find a new nanny. The day I found the resumes for my replacement, I cried for 6 hours straight. I prayed to Heavenly Father to either help me find new opportunities or make this nanny job work-out. A few days later, the mom asked me to meet her for dinner, and she told me that they had emotional stress trying to replace me. She offered for me to live with them, and gave me a whole basement apartment basically. I prayed and prayed and didn't feel like I really got a clear answer. I decided no, and as I was about to tell her that, I got this strong impression to accept her offer. I was so confused. I had never lived away from my family, didn't want to start a new ward, and had NO future that I could build in Midway. BOY WAS I WRONG. I pushed forward, knowing this is what was meant for me. I went my first day to the singles ward, and as Sunday School was starting, a boy came up to me, and handed me a flier for FHE. For some reason as soon as I looked up at him, I knew this is why I had been sent there. I've never felt the Spirit stronger. I had incentive to keep going to church and to activities, and little by little I broke the shy boy. On Thursday nights, I attended Seminary. Up here, it consists of 1 class with like 5 people in it. I shared a story one night about going to the temple to know what kind of a person I wanted to date. I came across a scripture that talked about seeking a wise man. I think it was advice for sure. Class went on and Brother Clark interrupted class suddenly. He said," I'm sorry, but I have to do this. Trevor, you need to take Deidre on a date in the next 2 weeks." I went red and didn't want to look up the whole class-time. Brother Clark pulled me aside and told me that he didn't know me well, but the Spirit had been bothering him & he and his wife had impressions that Trevor and I were supposed to date. We looked up Trevor's name and in a different language, it means wise. I was meant to find that scripture for sure. I sought a wise man and found him! We started dating in October of 2009 & we were engaged in February 2010.

I've never been happier & I'm so excited to spend eternity with such an amazing man.

I love you Trevor! :)

THE BEGINNING OF ETERNITY

Trevor and I met when I moved up to the Heber/Midway area, to nanny. I remember him coming up to me my first time in that singles ward. He handed me a flier for an upcoming activity, and right when I looked at him, I knew this is where we'd end up.
We got engaged February 13th,2010. Wedding plans changed here and there but these are the final plans:

We will be sealed June 19th, 2010 in the Manti Utah Temple. That evening there will be a dinner for family in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. We are excited to start our journey to eternity together!