Halloween Recap

This is a recap of past Halloween costumes since Chris and I have been married.  We have slowly gotten better at dressing up. 

Year one.: We lived in Utah and we didn't dress up. 

Year Two:  We lived in San Francisco, I dressed up but Chris did not.

I was a geisha.  My friend Kiera is super into Halloween, we went to a few thrift shops together and assembled ourselves some costumes. This costume cost me under $20.

Year Three: We lived in Key West.  

Both Chris and I dressed up.  See progress.

I was a pirate and Chris was a rocker/stoner.  My costume cost me $1.  I got the pirate hat and eye patch at the dollar store. The rest of the clothes I already owned.  Chris's costume was free.  He wore the black wig I wore the year prior and the rest of the clothes he already owned.

Year Four:  We live in Grand Cayman. 

We wore coordinating costumes.  

We dressed up as 49er fans!  Both costumes were completely free and required no effort whatsoever.  Give me a break I am almost 7 months pregnant.

Hopefully our costumes will continue to improve once we have kids and begin trick or treating.   

Halloween Spoktacular

Happy Halloween Everyone!  

This year we celebrated by attending our branch Halloween Spooktacular.  This was put on by the primary presidency.  They went all out, with decorations, food, and games.  They did a great job.

I will admit I am not a huge Halloween person.  I like to dress up but with minimal effort usually using stuff we have on hand.  I really did try to think of a fun pregnant costume, but Chris really didn't want to dress up and in the end, we went as 49er football fans.  Kind of lame but whatever. 

Showing some enthusiasm. 

I did make this awesome bean dip. I cut up the olives to look like spiders.  An idea I got from pinterest.  Love that site!

Here are my good friends Margaret and Michelle they are both in the primary and put in a ton of work to make this party happen.  They look so cute!  This was the face painting station. 

There was bobbing for apples,  pumpkin decorating, a guess how many game, and a Halloween pinata.  

My favorite was the Donut eating contest.  This game was a hoot to watch. You had to try to eat the donut off the string without the donut falling off the string and you can't use your hands

 We hope everyone had a happy Halloween! 

Chris has a new friend

This is Chris with his new bud Deandre.   We home teach him and his mom Deann.  He sure is a cutie and all boy.  He loved hanging out with Chris and watching football.  He loves football.  He is 5 and for a 5 year old I was surprised how engaged in the game he was.  

 Deandre loved posing for the camera.  He also loves basketball, hence the t-shirt he is wearing.  We might have the next Micheal Jordan right here.

Here he is showing us his cool break dance moves.  His favorite part was watching himself in action on the camera when we finished recording. 

Chris is going to be a great dad and I am most certain our little girl is going to grow up knowing everything there is to know about sports. 

Rain Rain Go Away...

We are in the rainy season here in Grand Cayman.  It poured rain last Saturday and again this Saturday.  I am totally bummed out about it.  It has been raining on and off throughout the last two weeks, that doesn't matter very much to us because we are working.  But today I wanted sun and beach and it was not happening.

I had a doctors appointment today so I got a short video of this fabulous weather we are having.

Poor Chris got drenched as he ran out to get the car and pull it up for me so I wouldn't get wet.  Sad thing about it, we had umbrellas, but unfortunately we had left them in the car.

3rd trimester!

3rd trimester, here we are.  Wow, it's a little hard to believe.  We are in the homestretch only 100 days to go.  Luckily, time seems to be whizzing by and with all the holidays coming up there is so much to look forward to, Halloween, Pirates Week, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, and then before we know it Baby Girl will be here.    

So far so good.  I am currently still able to sleep soundly all night, most nights I don't wake up at all.  The Lord sure is blessing me with that luxury and I am basking in it while it last.  He knows I need that beauty sleep, I can be one cranky, irritable, beastly woman without my sleep.  There aren't really any new symptoms to report of yet, and a lot of the old ones have subsided, just an ever expanding belly.  Overall, I am feeling really good, despite being slightly extra emotional.  I pretty much can't watch a single movie with out tearing up, same goes for, testimony meetings, really anything spiritual, anything sad, anything happy, anything scary, all result in tears.   Plus, I am extra sensitive, especially with Chris and my feelings get hurt pretty easily.

I feel the baby moving all the time now, she sure is a active little girl.  The movements are strong enough for Chris to feel now too.  He felt the baby kick for the first time a couple nights ago, that was a pretty exciting moment.  She was moving all around during Sacrament on Sunday, I was sitting by Margaret so she got to feel the baby also.

I have started decorating the nursery or as some may say "nesting".   It is fun to have a project to work on and think about.  I am excited to post about it when it is done.  I have given myself a $100 budget for decorating, not including the crib expense.  So far I am way under budget.  I have been able to find a lot of stuff for free and love that I am able to create most of it myself rather than just going out and buying it all.   It is coming along.  The room is small and we are keeping the queen bed in there for when guests come to stay, so that makes it a little more challenging.  I finally decided on a bird theme and I am incorporating a wide variety of colors.

This bird picture which can be found here it is my inspiration for the nursery.  I am attempting to recreate my own version of this picture to hang above the crib.  

Wish me luck!

~ Brunette ~

I made the switch.  I am a brunette once more.  It was time.  When I first started going blonde after Chris and I were married I fell in love with being a blonde.  Every time I got my hair done I went lighter.  Lets face it blondes have more fun.  But unless its natural being a blonde also requires more work, more maintenance, more up keep, and more money.   All of which I felt were not going to suit my lifestyle when baby girl arrived, not that it suited my lifestyle before but it seemed worth it to me then.  Not so much anymore.  I didn't want to have to worry about getting my hair done every 8 weeks and I really didn't want to keep paying for it.  We are in saving money mode right now.  We are trying to save as much as we can to prepare for baby girls arrival and the added extra expense she will bring.  Especially, since I am planning on making the switch from full time job to full time stay at home mommy.  :)

This was an at home dye job.  My friend Michelle dyes her own hair so she came with me to the beauty store and we picked out and bought the color and then went back to my house to color it.  She also gave me a little trim.  I must say it turned out way better than I thought it would.  I was praying it wouldn't be green or orange.  Relief.  I am really loving the dark chestnut brown color.

  

        

The View

These pictures were all taken from the top of the parking structure at the bank were I work.  I have to park all the way at the top 8 floors high.  It is located right in the heart of George town literally across the street from the shops Chris manages.  

I work on the 3rd floor in the fraud department. My job tittle is a Risk Investigator. Basically, I monitor suspicious activity on all of the Butterfield card holder accounts.  I find it interesting to see what people spend there money on.  I am surprised by how many people and how often people travel.  Mr. Smith is traveling for 6 weeks in Singapore, Thailand and New York, while  Mrs. Adams is traveling for 4 weeks in Paris, Venice, and Barcelona, and so many more.  Seriously, what do these people do and how do I get involved.
I might feel just a little bit guilty for getting excited every time I detect fraud on someones account.  It is unfortunate for the person, having to go through the process of having there card cancelled, waiting for a new one, and disputing the charges.  But at the same time I did them a favor for catching it before their bank account had been completely depleted of funds.  So I guess it is alright to get excited about it, right.  I am amazed at how common fraud is, happening daily in all parts of the world.
My advice:

Be extremely cautious what you buy online, even the most secure sites are easily compromised. 

So make sure you take advantage of online banking and monitor your accounts daily. 

She's Growing

20 weeks

24 weeks

World Domination, Baby Crib, and The Holy Prophet

Last weekend was General Conference.  I must say I was looking forward to this session more than any before... why is that?  Well I think it was for a couple of reasons.

1. Desperately seeking guidance and comfort as I enter into the trialing and glorious world of motherhood. 

2.  The week prior my husband gave a very uplifting talk in sacrament on the importance of GC. 

3.  All week as a couple we made an effort to prepare ourselves to listen to conference and heed the messages we would hear. 

Result- Conference was awesome!  There were so many talks that I loved and felt applied directly to me.  I was able to stay awake and actively listen to to all four sessions entirely, which unfortunately never happens. After each talk Chris and I would briefly ask each other what we learned.  I thought it was interesting how even though we were both listening to the same talk what we remembered and the points that stuck out to us were often times very different. 

   

On Sunday the branch had a big lunch between sessions, and even though we decided to watch conference at home we live really close to the church and still went to take advantage of the amazing food.  Plus I had signed up to bring a cake and some rolls.  It felt like thanksgiving, we had ham and turkey and roast beef,  mashed potatoes and gravy, peas, green beans, cooked carrots, salad, and rolls.  The only thing missing was pumpkin pie.  Is it obvious my mind might be slightly preoccupied with food?

After conference Jordan and Margaret came over and we played a fun game of Risk, which I totally dominated!!   

After Risk the Missionaries came over for dinner.  Margaret and I made BBQ and pineapple chicken with brown rice and salad.  Amazingly delicious. 

Then everyone helped us set up our new crib for baby! 

 Isn't it the cutest crib ever?!