Long Week

It has been a long week. Not so much for me, but for Jake. Jake started classes this week at UNT and along with that he is a TA for two classes, went to a Young Men's activity, and gave a talk in church. Busy fellow my husband is.

I on the other had had a wonderfully relaxing week. After seeing how fast the numbers of the scale grew after my doctor's appointment last Monday, I decided that it is time for me to stop pretending that I exercise and actually get out there and move. I'm now in a routine of doing my pregnancy video work out in the morning for 20 min and then going on an hour walk at night after it cools down some. I found some pregnancy podcasts from a male friend who wishes to remain anonymous called PregTASTIC, and it has been fun to listen to them as I'm walking. I recommend listening to them for any first time mom-to-be's since you can download them free, and it is just like listening to a bunch of girlfriends chatting around a table.

Whoever invented the three day weekend is a genius. All day I've had the feeling that I was going back to work tomorrow, but I have the wonderful realization that I not only have work off but I will also have Jake home all day. We took advantage of this spare time in Jake's schedule yesterday by putting together our baby crib that arrived this week (see below). The bedding also arrived, so all we need now is a mattress, mattress cover, and sheets for the bed.


My friend Kathryn threw an Upper-Case Living party on Saturday that threw me into craft mode. To give a plug for Kathryn, she sells and does demonstrations for decorative lettering that can be put on walls, tiles, wood blocks, etc. Right after the party I went to our local craft store and got so excited since I feel like I haven't done anything artsy since high school. So, I got some wood blocks, paint, animal stencils, dressor knobs, and ribbon and made the cute B A B Y sign that you can see hanging above the crib in the picture above. It was such a blast to make this. I stayed up way too late last night wanting to finish the project. You can see a close up of the final product below. Thanks for the motivation Kathryn!


My mom decided that it's time for another belly shot. Jake took the pictures below today, and I'm at about 5 months 1 week--24 weeks exactly.

Jake thinks the picture below makes my belly look like my rear end. Thanks hunny. Very supportive.


My week ended today with a new calling as the secretary in the Relief Society presidency and a sacrament meeting talk assignment for two weeks from today. Kickin' it into high gear. Bring it on.

A Trip Into Dallas

Jake and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary this past Wednesday. Happy anniversary Jake! Since he was gone from 4pm-2am helping to work on an Eagle project on the day of our anniversary, we decided to celebrate yesterday by going into Dallas for the first time.

Seeing that we are cheap, we first visited the free Pioneer Park that's right in the middle of the city. This park had a bunch of staged bronze statues of cattle. How can you not take some really silly pictures while you're there?

Although we went to Dallas thinking that we would park the car and take a walking tour around the city, we came to find out that it isn't really a walking city and there isn't much to see for free. So...we made it a short car tour on the way to the mall. As you can see, I got caught by the camera in the Baby Gap store. What can I say?


We managed to do all this by noon, so we went to the Cheesecake factory for lunch. Oh my wow! We started our binge by ordering avocado egg rolls and then proceeded with our delicious entrees below. I had the Bang Bang Chicken and Shrimp and Jake had the jambalaya. We then ordered cheesecake to take home (key lime cheesecake for me and tuxedo cheesecake for Jake). I don't even want to think about how many calories were in that meal. Thank goodness I can blame any weight gain on the pregnancy.


We finished off our anniversary celebration as chaperons for the Stake's youth Saturday Night Dance. We started off as hall monitors until another two couples from our ward came as chaperons and brought us onto the dance floor. Not to boast, but my man has moves. All in all, it was a really fun time. It's nice to finally go to one of those dances and not wonder if you're going to be asked to dance. Thanks for a great night Jakey!

Our Ultrasound!!!

So I thought I would use this ultrasound as an opportunity to assume the time honored tradition of being the annoying father with the camera in every one's face. If we start the kid early maybe it won't know any different. So here's some video with a few directors comments...

Well we won't embarrass the child here with any obscene images but let's just say it was definitively made known that we will be having a boy. That's right, our own little man-cub. Someday he'll thank his dear old dad for not posting pictures of his winky online. That kind of stuff can keep you from getting jobs. Here's another video...

So we got a lot of other little videos but they weren't as good for distinguishing body parts. We did get a little recording of his heartbeat which was lots of fun. If you want us to send or post more of the videos, demand it and we just may comply. They're mostly of stuff like femurs and internal organs. Knowing us though, we'll probably be posting more pictures in a blatant and gratuitous attempt to show off our kid. Anyways, here's his heartbeat...

That's it for now, but rest assured we'll post some more later.

Jake

"It's a.....

...lizard!"

At least, that's what Jo said last night when she walked into the kitchen to find this little guy scurrying around. But for those of you hoping to hear some more important news, I promise the info is forthcoming. We took some good pictures and video that we'll be posting soon. In the mean time, just try not to be envious of all the wildlife we have in our apartment.

The Long Awaited Pictures

Now for the long awaited pictures of our apartment and my slowly growing belly (plus some other Farnsworth happenings).

As you can see, it's not too different a set-up from our past apartment. A few additions are the tall bookshelf, the fireplace that's to your left, and REAL CARPET (which has just been vacuumed as you can tell).

And then there is our favorite new addition to our home. Yes, it's our dining room table. For three years we used a $9 D.I. table with one adopted chair, so this table is a welcome addition. Some not very clever person who designed our apartment decided to put carpeting in the dining room area, so we got a cool bamboo rug to catch the crumbs...one day a dog will help with this as well. Also notice the cool light above the table. The apartment came with a chandelier that wasn't quite our style, so we got this cool lamp thing at IKEA for cheap-o. The coolest thing about it is that the entire chandelier that came with this apartment is actually still inside the lamp. Good engineering Jake! Our first and only dinner guests so far were the missionaries that had dinner with us tonight.



And then there's me. This is a picture of my belly today at 20 weeks. Growing slowly, but I'm okay with that. I've been feeling our little Farnsworth kick more and more lately. It's still little love taps--I can't imagine what it will feel like in a few months when the little guy/girl has more of a soccer foot. I've been trying to get Jake to feel the movement I feel, but the baby is usually totally still whenever Jake puts his hand on my tummy...until yesterday. Jake felt the baby kick...or head butt...or whatever it was. Hurray!
The other Farnsworth news of the day is that Jake got a calling as Priest Quorum Adviser. There's about 30 Young Men in the ward, and I think quite a few of them are priests, so Jake will get to have a great crew of young guys to work with. I think it will be a great experience helping these young men prepare for missions and see them come back (we should be in Denton long enough for that). I still have no calling, but the bishop commented today that it won't be long until I do. For now I'm just fine being the official cookie baker for the Priest Quorum.