Handmade with love.

A few friends and family members have requested an online tour of baby girls' room. So without further ado, here is our little orange, teal, and yellow wonderland! Almost every detail and project in her room was handmade or re-purposed with love, by her daddy or me.

A little break.

JD and I were both busy bees last night. He was studying for his first big Organic Chemistry test of the semester and I was getting things done off my creative checklist (. . . festive fall hand towels for the shop, birthday gift for my little sister, and a custom Halloween canvas for my aunt). We worked and studied side by side for a few hours and then decided to take a little break and indulge in some root beer floats. Yum! 

Ps. I would be lying if I said that was the only break we took. We also stopped every half hour or so to talk about baby names, look at our planners and try to guess when our girl is going to make her debut,  watch her move around in my belly, and daydream about what it is going to be like when she's here. It's  hard to think about much else when you're so close to becoming parents!

RT Retreat.

This post is a little late, but I recently got these pictures back from a friend at work and had to share. When I was 30 weeks pregnant, the recreation therapy (RT) department at work had a little retreat. We floated the Provo River, zip-lined through Provo Canyon, and ate dinner together at one of my favorite places, Brick Oven. I loved every minute of spending time with these folks in such a gorgeous setting (And don't you worry. . . I wore a full-body harness while zip-linging to alleviate the pressure on my belly. There was minimal to no risk for me or baby!) 

Half the department is pregnant!

All of us together.

Ready for adventure!

On the zip-line. What a rush!

Love that glorious sunshine.

In case you didn't know, I work full-time as a recreational therapist at an adolescent residential treatment center. I love what I do and, as you can imagine, I'm a pretty big believer in the healing power of wholesome recreation and leisure.  I feel so lucky and grateful that my smooth, healthy pregnancy has allowed me to continue doing all the active things I'm used to and love doing. I had no hesitations being involved in this retreat or any of the other adventure outings we provided for the residents at work this summer. At 23 weeks pregnant, I spent the night in Moab with a group of boys and took them hiking and river rafting (those rapids were a joke!) At 31 weeks, we went canoeing. And most recently, at 35 weeks, I camped overnight and hiked with the boys to a landing up Big Cottonwood Canyon to supervise outdoor rock climbing. Gosh, I just love seeing teenagers experience new and rewarding things and can't imagine a job quite as rewarding as the one I've got :)

Family memories.

We are pretty lucky to live within a few hours of most of JD's family. We get to see them regularly and I'm glad that, if we have to live away from my family, we are at least close to his! His parents and littlest brother came over for most of the day yesterday and it was so nice to chat and laugh and eat with them. JD's mom and my sister-in-law, Mikella, hosted a sweet shower for me last week with his extended family; it was lovely to gather and celebrate our baby girl.  JD and Ty (and sometimes me and Mikella, too!) have been getting together recently to play tennis. . . and I guess what I've been thinking about lately is just how grateful I am to get to make all these precious memories with his family before we head out for PA school sometime in the next year. We are blessed!

Brotherly love at the three youngest boys' birthday dinner in August.

Tennis date last month.

So long sweet summer.

Goodbye to spontaneous weeknight dates to the ballpark. . .

Hello to a new (second to last!) semester of college (undergraduate, that is. . .) for hubbylove.

JD started a new year of school at Utah Valley University (UVU) this week and, boy, has he got a busy few months ahead of him! He's taking the dreaded Organic Chemistry he's been putting off since he enrolled. . . not to mention a slew of other classes too. He's currently serving as the Pre-PA club president and he's in the middle of training for his new job as a CNA at a long-term rehab facility in Provo. On top of his CNA job, until the snow cramps his style, he's going to continue teaching tennis on the weekends (he loves that time to play and teach and make a little extra money!) We also just got called to teach Sunday School to the 14 year-olds at church, so we'll be thinking about and preparing for weekly lessons. He's planning on volunteering a lot and shadowing doctors and PAs to continue building his resume for grad school. Oh! And did I mention he's entering into a new endeavor called parenthood sometime in the next 6 weeks? 

. . .we'll sure miss you, lazy summer days!