Episode 18: Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!!! I know that it's only a few days before Christmas but we finally got our tree up last weekend. It looks nice.

We also, just made our first big baby purchase this week. Really it's more for me but we're calling it a baby purchase. We picked it up on Thursday night and Jake had it up and working in about 10 minutes. 

Well, I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!! Enjoy the holidays!!!

Episode 17: Thanksgiving Adventures

Wow! Sorry for the lack in blog posts. For Thanksgiving we surprised our families, with the help of my brother and sister, and went home. It was fabulous! We flew in Thanksgiving morning and my sister picked us up from the airport. From there we went straight to my Grandma's house for dinner. When we walked in my mom was standing in the kitchen clear across the room and when she turned around to say hi to my sister her jaw literally dropped open. We got almost the same reaction from Jake's family. It was a great Thanksgiving! We also had a chance to go shooting with my family. Unfortunately, the only pictures we got were of everyone shooting. Enjoy those. 

This is the pro. My grandpa. 

This is my cousin.

This one is my sister.

 

And here's Jake. 

Watch what happens when he shoots. :-) That must be a powerful shot. 

This is my mom and my brother throwing the clay pigeons.

Here's everyone lined up and ready to shoot. 

This is where I was most of the morning. Hanging out by the truck. This is my cousin and his "friend."

I did take my turn too but since I was the one taking the pictures, I didn't get any pictures of me. The baby was really good. I expected him to startle but he didn't. He just slept right through it. 

Episode 16: Zillo

Yes his name is Zillo. This is how we decided on his name. We wanted a name that would instill fear in others, so naturally - Godzilla. But in an effort to keep sacred names sacred, we shortened it to Zilla... but that sounds too feminine with the "a" so we swapped it for an "o". Thus - Zillo

Click play to watch 1 1/2 min video of him

Episode 15: Halloween Fun

So Halloween night we were boring and didn't dress up or go out on the town but we did have some fun with a couple of friends. After a fabulous dinner and a quick dose of Thriller we had a great battle with the game Settlers of Catan. Here's some pictures of the mini pumpkins we decorated. 

                                       Here's all of us with our pumpkins.

                                           Wow! Could I have a cheesier grin?

                                  Jake did a great job! His looks just like him. 

Episode 14: baby bump

Okay, So Chanté has expanded a wee bit in the belly region, and now she can't hide it anymore from strangers. She was trying to hide it from everybody at work for as long as she could, but she's too obvious now. Still, nobody from church knows yet : )

We'll call this her week 28 picture.

What's really fun for me is to find what parts are poking through her belly by gently squishing around the lump. So far the only thing I'm sure of was his back.

Happy Friday!!!

So, I am loving the fall weather! I am so happy that it's Friday!! That means that I'll have time to go enjoy the weather tomorrow. I hope everyone is enjoying their Friday!

Episode 13: Cincinnati

Chanté and I took advantage of the "long" weekend this last week over general conference and took a road trip to Cincinnati Ohio! It's an 8 hour drive but well worth the scenery and we took a friend and met friends there. Here's just a few pics from our trip.

First at the heart of the city is this rather interesting fountain. the lady at the top has water raining from her hands. Cool enough I want one just like it.

Chanté and Jake on a midnight stroll after a fancy evening out.

This pic doesn't capture the awesome-ness of the changing leaves, but it's amazing driving through a place that actually has trees. And though you may argue, No... Utah does not have trees.

Season Premier! Episode 12

Okay, So waiting 3 weeks to blog is apparently too long. So, Here's a quick recap of what's happened over the past month:

First week - Jake got some good pics of the local area, like the really big Penny guy and The Wall.

The second week - Again Jake got to go have fun in Salt Lake! ...if you want to call a 70 hour work week fun. Yep I flexed my musculars and got to work at the Hale Centre Theatre. Normally I just work on the lighting part of things but I did so well... I helped in other places too.

Like changing the oil on this set piece.

And building a cage thing.

   ...I'm sure I'm not the first to build one of these from the inside.

The third week - Chanté actually started growing her tummy! Our little guy is growing strong, as he kicks mommy her tummy bulges! Wow, She's only got 4 months left and is now starting to tell her co-workers only because she can't hide it anymore.

ooh! it's happening again!

Episode 11: The votes are in!

Thank you to all who voted on the baby's gender. We've carefully counted and calculated and more people think we're having a girl by a margin of 23%. Well today was the big day in the world of our little fetus. The kid got a gender and therefore we can work on the name. But hey, we've got until January. The ultrasound was fun! we got to see our growing baby kick move and roll a lot. This might be a foresight into what Chanté is going to be feeling in a few weeks. lucky her!

You can see the cute cranium and the fisted phalanges.

Our little boy Enoch will be a stud, no matter the apparel.

That means the votes for boys win! pat yourself on the back!

Episode 10: Baby News

Sorry everyone but right now the big thing in our lives is the growing fetus. You will probably hear a lot about the baby's progress.  Today was a pretty big day for us as far as the baby is concerned. I finally felt the baby moving for the first time. It's so weird. It's a little more real to me that there is another being inside of me though. Also, today we went and picked up a crib from some friends here in DC that were wanting to get rid of it. It's still in great condition so we are very grateful for this early gift. Here are couple of pictures. Jake was so excited he decided to put it together. Also, just because he's a curious human. After I took these pictures, he took it apart again since we really don't have room for it to be sitting around yet. 

rawr! Me put this together myself. No Instructions.

Kinda big for a baby?!

The Ultimate Gift

Well, there's not much to report this week. We enjoyed our long weekend and had the opportunity to watch a really great movie with some good friends. It's called "The Ultimate Gift." It just reemphasized to me how many blessings we have and what kind of people we should be. Sometimes it's so easy to get caught up in what's going on in our own day to day lives that we forget to reach out to the people around us. We also forget about the many gifts that we all enjoy. If you have time, it's a great one to watch. Blockbuster has it.

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

Today is Jake's mom's birthday. Since you are so far away, we just wanted to say: Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Mom! Happy birthday to you!! Since you're not here to enjoy it with us, I guess we'll just have to enjoy your birthday cake for you. :-) We hope your day is going great!!!

The National Museum

There's so much to do in DC but unfortunately, we are typically so busy with work and other endeavors that we don't get much time to go see the sights. So, last Saturday we decided that we would go see a museum since we had about 3 hours with nothing to do (that rarely happens). We went to the Natural History museum. It was so much fun. We only went through about 3 exhibits but it was very interesting. We first saw a bunch of artifacts and history about the people in what they called western civilization. Really it was stuff from the middle east about 3,000 years ago or older. We enjoyed it. They had mummies and everything! Even a mummified Buffalo. We then saw animals and insects which were interesting. They even had several live insects. That was my favorite part! Then last was the dinosaurs. We had our camera with us but didn't really pull it out until the end. Here are a few pictures for your viewing pleasure. 

I think we found Jake's long lost brother that he never new about. 

This thing was one big chicken!!! Look at it's beak!

Isn't he handsome!

Jake was trying to look fierce like the dinosaur. Did it work?

Of course I had to have a picture in front of the gigantic elephant. :-)

Our News

Ok. I guess it's time. For those of you who don't know, I'm pregnant. I haven't posted anything yet because you can't even tell. I have a little bit of a baby belly but not enough for anyone except me and Jake to be able to tell. Therefore I can't post any pregnant belly pictures or anything. 

I am 17 weeks right now which puts me at half way in a couple weeks. Crazy huh!!!  Well, when there's a little more evidence maybe I will post some pictures but for now, there's really nothing to see. :-) 

SLC Trip

So, my sister arrived home from her mission recently and we were lucky enough to go see her and our families. We had a great time even though the trip was way too short. We didn't have enough time to see everyone we wanted to. Our schedule was pretty packed but we enjoyed it. Here are some pictures though we didn't get enough because we didn't always have the camera with us. Oops!

This is Jake's family. There are a couple of siblings missing but it's a great picture of them!!!

This is my little brother that's not so little. Doesn't he look excited!!!

Some great friends. It was so good to see you guys!!!

My cute sister. 

 

Check out those tan lines!!! That's what happens when you wear Chacos for 16 months straight on a tropical island. :-) 

 

Adventures at the Zoo

So, Jake and I recently (last week) went to the National zoo. We went at the end of the day and had planned about 2 hours which isn't much but we went after work. We got there ok but shortly after that the adventures began. I had been wearing my heels all day at work so Jake brought me a pair of flip flops to walk around in. I only had them on my feet 5 minutes when they broke and I was forced back into my heels. It was ok at first but the zoo isn't flat. It's a series of hills. My feet and back started hurting pretty quickly.

We first saw a couple of empty cages and then we saw a fishing cat. ( Insert imaginary picture here. We accidentally forgot the camera.) It looked like a regular cat but it ate fish and hunted or caught them out of the water. It was pretty cool. They had a pond in the cage that simulated a stream or creek and there were goldfish (the bigger ones) and other medium sized fish that the cat would catch and eat.

The next impressionable thing we saw was a red panda bears. They were little lemur looking things that had the face of a bear but crawled around in the trees. The were really cute and I would have brought one home if I could.

Next was the main event. The panda bears!!!! Oh wait...where are they? Do you see them? Maybe over here. Nope. They had a huge habitat and they weren't even in it. I guess they were inside or something.

Well, at that point, we planned to go see the elephants and other animals but my feet and back were hurting so bad that we decided to go get dinner instead. We ate at a cute little Japanese restaurant that was set up café style and we were seated outside. The sushi was fabulous!! Then again, it's one of my favorite foods.

All in all it was a great night. Even though we only saw a couple animals. :-)

Episode 3: What's that rumbly in my tumbly?

This week with the Wilsons was easy as pie. Cherry pie! Late night pie eating is a favorite of Jake and Chanté. We baked it just now... Sunday night after we went to the DC Temple Fireside! I cant decide which I liked more. The pie or the fireside. At the Temple, Secretary Michael Leavitt gave an inspiring talk about faith and faith building experiences. So I guess the pie leaves the rumbly in your tumbly, but the spirit leaves a burning in your chest. Both are desirable.  

Pitting the Cherry's, Nice and messy.
Nice and happy Mr Pie... Until we bake you!! Bwaah haa ha ha!
Poor Mr. Pie... Couldn't make it past 35 min at 375
Welcome to the DC Temple! We LOVE it here!
Umm... It's not what it looks like honey! Mr. Cherry Pie left the baby cherry's to me in his will. ...*cough*

This weeks Episode

Can you imagine Jake and Chanté wanting to get away from Utah? Well we finally did it the end of June. We took off to another beautiful part of the country, Washington DC! Chanté has lived here before but it's a new city for Jake.

 The journey here was pretty exciting in our moving truck. Chanté's parents and brother came with us to help unpack in DC. It took four days to drive at 10 MPG (stupid moving truck) but we made it before we broke the bank.

 Oh, and Zillo made it comfortably by way of a small rabbit cage, but he was excited to get his full size cage back! Strangely enough, we didn't stick around at our new place for more than 12 hours before we got in the car (no more moving truck - that blasted thing) and drove for another 15 hours to wonderful Orlando FL. 

We went for a convention, but still had time to see Sea World before

 the weekend was over. I know... we stayed on Disney property but didn't go to their parks?! Don't worry, we'll plan to go again next summer and actually get to all the parks!

Stay tuned for next weeks episode: What's that rumbly in my tumbly?

Hint: don't eat that leftover Chili. 

Hello and Our New "Baby"

Since we are moving and we do that alot, I thought it might be a good idea to setup a blog so everyone who wants to can keep track of us. Our latest adventure began last Saturday when we bought a Chinchilla. We decided to name him Godzilla or Zillo for short. He is one cute and cudley but shy and energetic fellow. We enjoyed holding him and chasing him around the house for the first day or two till I was reading up on Chinchillas and found out we were doing it all wrong. We have to slowly let him get used to us and train him to come to us instead of chasing him. Apparently they are very cautious and impressionable animals. Since then, we have been giving him his space and letting him get used to us. Last night, he actually ate a treat out of Jake's hand and was content to climb all over us during "play time." He's been very shy around us and usually runs to hide when he sees us so last night was a big improvement! I will try to keep this updated. Thanks for reading!!