Christmas in Perth

In December my family came out to Perth to celebrate Christmas! We had such an amazing time and managed to cram in a whole lot of fun in the 3 weeks they were here. It's hard to believe they have already come and gone. We made some great memories and had an unforgettable Christmas. Thanks for coming out to visit! Here is a short timeline of Christmas in Perth 2011. Since I couldn't post all the pictures we took (which was well over a hundred) I picked some of my favourite ones to share instead.

My parents came out a week earlier then Michelle and Brad, so we got to spend some one on one quality time with them. We spent a lot of time showing them around Perth. This picture is in Fremantle.

While in Fremantle we got to see the preliminary sailing races for the Olympics.

We took my parents to Curtin University. Since they weren't able to make it out for my graduation we took a picture in front of where the graduation ceremony would be held.

Went to the beautiful Kings Park a handful of times

Went Christmas shopping in the city

Went to see the pinacles in Nambung national park

Pinacles

Celebrated an early Christmas and opened presents before we headed off on a road trip down south

Had a celebration dinner at Little Ceasars pizza for my graduation

Spent Christmas at one of the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen- Hamlin Bay

Merry Christmas 2011

Saw wild sting rays.....

and touched them! One of the coolest experiences I've ever had by far!!!

Since we were on the road Christmas day everything was closed... so we had a gourmet lunch consisting of chips, soda, chocolate and candy from the local petrol station

Did lots of camping!

Went to Walpole and did the tree top walk

I was thoroughly entertained watching these two surf

Michelle over came her fear of waves and became the boogie boarding queen

Celebrated New Years out on the town

Happy 2012! :)

It's a GIRL!!!!

On Monday (Jan 16th) we had our anatomy scan and found out we are having.... a little GIRL! I couldn't be more excited. I had a feeling from the beginning that it was going to be girl and would have been pretty shocked (still excited) if it had turned out to be a boy. I was still a little nervous about the anatomy scan (I know I'm a HUGE worrier)... but once we got in there and saw a healthy baby my nerves went out the window. Getting an ultrasound is so amazing. I loved seeing our little girl and it was so comforting knowing that she is healthy and growing right on track.

Right after our ultrasound we hurried home to skype with both our families. We made everyone guess boy or girl and the votes were 50/50. Everyone was VERY excited! Later that night we had a gender revealing party with some of our close friends. We did a potluck dinner so everyone brought a dish to share and then I made a cake (pictured above) to make the big announcement.
I was pretty proud of my cake decorating skills and I would like to note that the entire cake was made from scratch (even the frosting)! It turned out perfect and was very yummy. The majority of our friends had guessed boy so it was a fun surprise for everyone.

As for an update on my pregnancy... I feel great! No real complaints here. The 2nd trimester so far has been smooth sailing. I am no longer nauseous and have a huge appetite, which is a nice change. My belly has grown nearly 20 cm since being pregnant. Can you believe it?!?! I was 67 cm before and now I'm 86cm! It's fun having a little bump... although not so fun sometimes finding an outfit that looks good. haha I have gained 10 pounds so far. I also started feeling her move a couple days ago. It felt like little pop corns popping in my belly (I think that was her punching/kicking me) and every once in awhile I'll feel her roll around. Such an amazing feeling! I am really enjoying the journey and am so excited for her to get here!!!!!

We are in the process of getting the baby room ready. We are putting her in what use to be our office downstairs. We have spent the week moving the furniture from the office upstairs into a different room. We will wait a little while to get the nursery furniture... we are just doing little bits at a time. Our pram is on it's way to my parents house. My wonderful sis has been kind enough to bring it over with her when she comes out in March. She is doing an OT placement out here for a few weeks. Buying it in the US saved us a whopping $500.00 so THANK YOU CHELL! Now that I know the gender I am looking forward to buying cute pink outfits and dresses... which is what I will be doing today! :)

That's all the updates for now.... at some point I'll get on the ball and post about my families Christmas vacation in Perth. So many pictures to chose from!!! Stay tuned! xx

How Bean came to be...

On Oct. 9, 2011 Brandon and I got a wonderful surprise... that our little family of 2 would soon become 3. So this is the story of how Bean came to be...

I had been feeling "different" for about a week. I won't go into all the details about my symptoms because some of it may be too much information for my readers haha... but for the most part I was feeling extremely tired to the point where I was going to bed at 8:00 pm almost every night. I was a little late for my period but kept thinking it would eventually come. Since I had been feeling different I decided to take a test and it came up POSITIVE! I couldn't believe it. Brandon was outside gardening at the time, so I ran out of the bathroom holding the pee-stick like a trophy and showed Brandon. He was SOOOO excited. Thinking back, I would have liked to surprise Brandon in a fun creative way, but I'm horrible with secrets when it comes to something I'm really excited about. I couldn't stop smiling all day!

Brandon was gardening at the time I told him and he thought our lemon tree would make a nice background, so we took the picture outside. haha

We had our first doctors appointment on Oct. 13th to get blood work done to confirm the pregnancy and make sure everything was running smoothly (I was around 5 weeks at the time). Everything went well. They figured out my due date would be June 14, 2012. I downloaded an app on my phone called 'Baby Bump' and 'What to expect when you are expecting'. Each week it would give me an update on how big the baby was. It started off the size of an apple seed and by the time we had our first ultrasound it was the size of a blueberry. We decided to call our baby Bean because we were tired of referring to our child as an it. Plus Bean just seemed to fit. Our first ultrasound was on October 31st, Halloween! At first I was worried this would be bad luck, but apparently only Friday the 13th brings bad luck... because we got to see a very healthy, very small baby. And it even looked like a Bean (see the name fit). We got to see Bean's heartbeat. At the time it was beating at 157 beats per minute. On the ultrasound screen it looked like a little flicker. We were so excited to see that there actually was a baby in there and that things were running smoothly.

Our first appointment with our OBGYN was on November 29th (I was 11 weeks 5 days at the time). We selected our doctor based off of a referral one of our other ex pat friends had made. I was really nervous for our first appointment. I woke up with butterflies in my stomach and was praying so hard that the everything would go okay. I had already become so attached to my little Bean. Anyway the appointment went great! The doctor did a scan in her office (which was a nice surprise) and we got to see Bean. Bean was jumping up and down and doing flips... almost as if to see "See mom I'm okay, don't worry." It made me so happy to see that our little Mexian Jumping Bean was growing strong. It was so crazy to see the transformation over 4 weeks. Bean no longer looked like a Bean but looked like an actual baby!

That day they sent me off to do more blood work (ugh I hate getting my blood drawn) for the down syndrome screen that is done inbetween 12-14 weeks. They use your blood test results with your ultrasound to determine if you are at high or low risk for having a child with down syndrome. We didn't care either way if our baby had down syndrome, but decided to do the test just to see if everything was going okay.

Today (December 9th) we had the ultrasound! I was really excited to get to see Bean again, and was hoping that s/he would be jumping around again so that I could get a picture. I had to go in with a full bladder (they need a full bladder for the scan) so Bean was slightly restricted and couldn't do his/her usual acrobatics, but we did see him/her hiccup and stretch his/her legs.

The results came back that we are at extremely low risk of having a baby with downsyndrome (1:8197). They said Bean looks healthy and is growing right on track. We find out on January 16th what gender Bean is. Most people are guessing it's a boy. Time to make your guess!

For the most part I have been feeling good. I've had a few dizzy spells and still feel sick off and on at night. At the beginning of the pregnancy I had major food aversions to meat... I still can't eat a hamburger, but chicken is okay. The fatigue isn't as bad now that I'm almost in my second trimester. Cravings include, chocolate milk, milk and fruit... Which is strange because I never was a big milk drinker and use to prefer soymilk. I am starting to get a little baby bump and most of my pants no longer will button. At first I was thinking it was more bloat then baby... but the ultrasound tech said that the placenta is attached right at the front (some women carry further back... meaning they don't show as much).

Well that is all the updates for now. I just love my little Bean so much and can't wait to be a mother. I can't stop smiling every time I think of Bean. What a wonderful blessing! I can't wait to meet my little one in 6 months.

September visit home

Finally pictures from our visit home in September. First off I just want to say how grateful I am that I have had the opportunity to go home 3 times this year! There is nothing better than going home to visit family. My family (both sides) means everything to me and there isn't a day that goes by that I don't miss them or think about them. I always have the best time when I go home to visit, but it always go by WAY too fast. Now it's back to real life and the trip seems like a huge blurr.

I wasn't as diligent with my camera as I should have been, but I was able to capture some of the highlights.

Whenever I go home I always think how beautiful Utah is. It's funny because I've lived in Utah my whole life, but after moving away it feels like I'm seeing everything through fresh eyes. I absolutely love the Utah mountains. I love how clean it is and how friendly every one is. I love the Salt Lake temple. Most of all I love the feeling of Salt Lake because it feels like home. Michelle likes to tease me because when I come home to visit all of a sudden I turn into a tourist... I get excited about ordinary things such as going to the Avenues 'Smiths', going to 711, going to Walmart & Target, going for a walk up city creek canyon, eating at Chilies, walking around temple square. Things that I use to do all the time, but never really thought about before.

Here are a couple of my more touristy photos...

State capitol building over looking Memory Grove

Salt Lake temple

Hands down the best part of being home is spending time with family. Which we were able to do lots of and luckily we were there long enough to spread our time evenly between both families. One of the highlights was on our first night we had a huge family BBQ with the Reese family and Amussen family. It was so much fun getting everyone together... even if Brandon and I were a little loopy from jet lagg. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the BBQ.

Also, while we were home we got to catch up with Brandon's great Aunt Marilyn for her birthday. :) We also celebrated my brother in-law's b.day... unfortunately no pictures of that either. I'm terrible when it comes to taking pictures. Happy birthday Brad!

We love you Marilyn!

I was able to spend a couple days up at my families ranch. This is my ultimate sanctuary and is full of such wonderful childhood memories. I love going up into the mountains away from everything and being able to relax and spend time with family. It was also fun to see the new renovations my family has done on the cabin. The deck outside is new!

At the ranch

Another highlight of the trip was having the whole Reese family together. It has been 2 years since we have all been together. August of 2009 Ryan, Brandon's younger brother, left for a mission in Ecuador and just got back a few months ago. It was so much fun seeing him and hearing about his mission. We missed him so much! It was also fun having the newly weds, Ashlee and Jason, in town from Oregon to visit. I love this crazy bunch and am so happy that I get to be a Reese!

And I love spending time with my cute little nephew who is growing up so fast! I still feel like he should only be a few months old. He is getting so big! This is one of my favourite pictures from the trip. So cute!

So, I am obsessed with haunted houses... don't ask me why because they really freak me out (especially the freakishly tall grim reaper looking people... they literally make me want to cry) but I love them!!! Halloween in general is one of my favourite holidays and I always feel a little jipped because it isn't really celebrated here in Australia. So even though it was September Brandon and I made sure to go to Nightmare on 13th and it was worth every penny. Following the haunted house we all went to village inn for dinner.

Dinner at Village Inn

Love my Sista

Well there were lots more exciting things that happened... but I of course forgot to take pictures. Another highlight from the trip was seeing my best friend Rachel from California, who flew out to visit me. :) And Brandon and I got to see our long lost buddies from Utah State who just moved back from Florida. We have missed you goobers! Other highlights include going to the avenues fair & farmers market, walking sawyer... or should I say having him walk me, doing crafts with Michelle, catching up with friends, eating LOTS of yummy food and going shopping!

All in all it was an amazing trip and I miss everyone so much already!

At the airport flying back to Perth

Well I hope I can come home to visit again soon. I can't wait for my family to come out in December for an Aussie Christmas. Get ready for the heat family because it's going to be a scorcher!

Club Pinterest day #1

I recently became a fan of pinterest ! When I went home for a visit (pictures to come) Michelle showed me pinterest and I've been hooked ever since. If you haven't already signed up, do it! Pinterest is an online pinboard and you get to collect different things you are interested in. For example I am collecting recipes, speech pathology resources and arts & craft ideas. My friend Dannii is obsessed with pinterest as well, so we decided to make a pinterest club. So far the only members are myself, Dannii and Jade, but we hope to have more people join... we are making it into a facebook club. We decided it would be fun to get together once a month and have each person choose a pinterest craft activity to do and bring along a new recipe to share.

Friday Dannii and I commenced our first Pinterest club meeting. We decided to make memo boards. We bought all of the supplies at the reject shop (discount store).

All the supplies- ready to go!

We hired Brandon on as our personal photographer (even though he teased us the whole time and said that we should call the club 'Over 80' because we were acting like old ladies). This is his action shot he took from behind the glue bottle. haha He did a good job. I think we might have to hire him for the next meeting.

Half way done

Yep we even did the hammering. We are tough like that.

And the finished product came out.......

Like this! :)

Can't wait for our next Pinterest day!

Half marathon

I did it!!!! After all of the let downs and moments of disappointment, I finally completed my first half marathon. No, it's not the full 26 miles as I had originally hoped... but I made it half way there, and with all the set backs I've experienced lately, those 13 odd miles felt like a huge accomplishment.

Getting ready to leave for the race

Leading up to the race my knee had felt great. I was finally able to start training again and was running about 20 miles a week. So, with some positive thinking I decided to sign up for the half marathon in the City to Surf race. City to Surf is put on each year by Chevron and is a huge event for Perth. Literally thousands of people show up to run the 4k, 12k, half marathon or full marathon.

I was a little apprehensive about signing up, having flash backs from walking nearly half of the HBF run for a reason 14K. But I decided I would just go for it and hope for the best. Tuesday I went running and my stupid IT band decided to flare up again, with only a few days before the big race. I knew I would have to rest it until race day or else I wouldn't be crossing the finish line.

I went to see the remedial massage therapist... who tried to loosen up my IT band (ouch!!). Then did lots of stretching using this tube roller thing, which freaking kills. It's like taking a rolling pin to your legs and pushing as hard as you can... basically a way of ironing out all those tight muscles. I even had my IT band taped by Rock Tape. Not sure how the tape works.. but even if it was a placebo effect, I thought it was worth a try.
We got to the start of the race at around 7:45. The race started at 8:30. I did lots of stretching and said many silent prayers that my knee would hold up for the race.
I got to run with one of my best mates, Mel Robinson. :) She has been my training buddy and also recently over came a hip fracture... all due to running. Yes, running is hard on your body, but it is awesome and one of the best feelings in the world.

The race course was soooo hilly. Lots of steep climbs! Poor Mel got sick at about 4 miles and forced me to go on without her as she hung back a ways. It was hard leaving my wing woman behind. :( I had been taking it easy up until then, hoping that my knee would cooperate. Once I got to about mile 5 I decided I might as well give it all i've got and not hold back! So from then on I booked it, running a pace of 7 min 30 seconds a mile and was able to stay at about 8 minutes 30 seconds a mile on the steep up hill climbs... putting my heart 100% into crossing that finish line. I would rather cross the finish line limping knowing I gave it my all rather than take it easy.

Tired and sweaty at the finish line!

I crossed the finish line at 2 hours and 7 minutes without stopping (except for a few brief stops to shoot back some H2O). Wow what an amazing feeling. Words cannot express how I felt in that moment. It was an amazing feeling having Brandon cheering for me at the finish line... He has been so supportive and has really helped encourage me to complete me goal. I even got a little choked up reaching the finish line!

After the race I got a complementary massage at the Barrick tent. Thanks Barrick!

And then met up with Mel. What a gal.. She is my hero. Despite feeling horribly ill, she finished the race! That's my girl. Proud of you Mel. :)

It was an amazing day!!!! After all the hard work, sweat and tears put into running... I finally did it! and I can't wait to do it again... and hopefully soon, run the full marathon! Call me crazy, but I love it! I am so grateful for my health. I know I have been blessed. I have definitely learned a thing or two about patience and perseverance over these past 6 months. :)

crossing the finish line!