A Good Weekend

We had a fun weekend, a buddy of mine from work told me about a place we could pick oranges for free. Jessica didn't believe that they were free, so she was sneaking around trying to make sure no one saw her picking anything. I can tell you, it is pretty funny to watch a pregnant lady trying to sneak around.

Also in other breaking news, we got our very first T.V. We have been meaning to get one for awhile now, but we could never decide on one. This week a co-worker of mine just wanted to get rid of her old T.V. so we decided to take it. So if we don't post for a while, it is because we are glued to the T.V.

We Passed!

We did it, we passed our baby class at the hospital. We even got a certificate to prove it. I feel like the greatest accomplishment from the whole experience was that Lance never fainted. For those of you that know Lance, you understand what I mean.

Week 34

Only 6 weeks left! Most days I can't believe how fast the time has gone, of coarse there are other days when I can't remember what it's like not to be pregnant. I've had some requests to see the belly so here are a few pictures of my belly and our new dresser for the baby.

Enough with the Lights Out

Anytime the weather is just slightly off the normal 70 degrees and sunny, we have issues with our power. In the summer we had too many nights and days with 100+ degree weather and no AC. Now that we are in the "rainy season" as some natives have informed me, our power seems to be struggling again. Lance and I can't understand how we've had more issues with the power or water going out than we did in Bolivia or Thailand. Well the other night as I was in the middle of cooking the power went out again. So I put whatever I could salvage from a partially cooked meal and threw it in the fridge. We then went out with everyone else in our complex to find a restaurant that had power. So we ended up having a candle light dinner for FHE last week. Ok so sort of fun one night of the week. But we've had a few short periods when the power has gone out since last Monday. Sunday's experience was probably my favorite. We go to church at 11:30am, so I usually wait until around 10 or 10:30 to take a shower and start getting ready for the day. This past Sunday the power went out pretty early and didn't come back until right before we were leaving. Needless to say I looked fabulous for church. When we got to church I realized a lot of women shared my same morning experience getting ready in the dark. I saw lots of wet hair, pony tails, and less make up than usual. Well I've had enough of all the power shortages and I wish someone could explain to me why this happens so often!

Christmas with the Commander and Chief

I am pretty proud of my parents, they got invited to the Presidents Christmas party at the whitehouse this year. Here is a picture of them, my dad said that right before this picture was taken my mom gave old George a "good game" pat, with a wink and that is why he is smiling. No word if that is true or not, but my guess is it is (mom is a big fan of Georgie).

1000 I'm sorries

We apologize for our last post, it was boring. We really did have a great time in St. Louis. The best part was getting to meet our nephew for the first time. He is a fun little guy. The last post was made right after vacation when we were still wondering where our vacation had gone.

Here are some more pictures from our Christmas vacation. Sorry they are a little late.

Santa and his elves (can you pick out Jessica?)

This is my sister messing around while geocaching. (she is still single)

Of course we did some woodwork while we were there.

Here is the finished product. Jessica and I made the boxes out of a piece of wood we found in the backyard.

This is our MAN DINNER. The men made pheasant, dove, and quail. Everyone was required to wear camo or blaze orange.

Jessica testing out the babies new camo doll.

Jessica thought it would be funny to give E-Man a mustache and eyebrows, I think he looks like MARIO. see the real story here: http://ericandheathernelson.blogspot.com/2008/01/look-what-tio-did.html

Christmas in St. Louis Part I

This year we spent Christmas in St. Louis with Lance's family. Each day was filled with an adventure. The day before Christmas we headed down to Union Station to look at the holiday decorations and enjoy a little shopping. One of the highlights of the trip was watching the fudge show. There is a fudge shop inside Union Station that puts on an entertaining show about the process of making fudge. They also give out free samples at the end of the show, thats probably why it was my favorite part of the trip.

My Growing Belly

This was taken over Thanksgiving, so my belly has grown since then. I'll have some better pictures to show you after Christmas!

Belly Shots

So I've had a lot of requests for some belly shots. I pretty much look like this but with a prettier face.

Lunchbox Mystery

So I had the most disturbing thing happen to me at work today. For those of you that don't know I work in a research lab. Food is strictly prohibited in our lab. There is a file cabinet outside the door of our lab. The four of us that work in the lab put our snacks and sometimes lunches there. This morning Lance made me a wonderful lunch with goldfish, string cheese, and many more exciting snacks. I put the lunchbox in my usual spot on the file cabinet. Around 11am I went to the bathroom and when I came back (less than 5 minutes later) my lunchbox had disappeared! Also stolen was a coffee mug with old coffee in it and our white board. Can you imagine what kind of person would steal a pregnant lady's lunch? So my boss and I walked around our floor asking if anyone knew what had happened. No one saw anything, which is also weird considering our floor rarely gets visitors. There is a total of 13 of us on the floor. Our lab of 4, 3 clinical lab scientists, 4 adminstrators, and 2 pathologists. Medical students will occasionally come to our floor for a class or seminar, but its finals week. Investigation is still taking place. I will let you know what I find. My number one suspect the old cranky pathologist.

Jess is funny

I have come to learn that marriage is all about compromises. Here is the conversation that led to this picture.

Jess: Lance lets learn sign language for the baby. Sister Johnson is teaching a class at church.
Lance: Thats not going to happen.
Jess: Ah come on it will be fun!
Lance: Fun for who?
Jess: Dang it.....PLEASE!!!!

This is where the negociating begins.

Jess: I will make you cookies?
Lance: You just finished making cookies.
Jess: Yeah but I will give them ALL to you.
Lance: I already had like 4, I think I am good
Lance: I will however learn some sign language if you let me draw a mustache on you.
Jess: What? No way
Lance: Final offer
Jess: Fine

End of negociations-A win win situation. That is what marriage is all about.

A Trip to Vegas

When my mom was visiting we took her up to Vegas for a Lax Tournament. It was fun to see Trevor and Taylor. Our cousin Anthony and Lance's sister Brooke were able to come down too, also fun. We had great weather for a fun day of lacrosse. The boys played great and walked away as Best of the West Champs. After the tournament we went and explored Vegas. It was a fast weekend. The next morning we packed up and headed to the Hoover Dam looking for the all spark before going home. I guess the Autobots beat us to it.

The Ultrasound

One of the highlights of my mom's stay with us was the trip to the Radiology Dept. We had our first ultrasound done. It really is remarkable what we are capable of doing with technology. It was so fun to see our little baby moving around. We also were able to find out the sex of the baby. We are having a little girl! We were worried we wouldn't be able to tell because she was not being very cooperative at first. I already know she is going to be like her Dad.......stubborn. They already have developed a father-daughter relationship. Lance was sure she was giving us the ASL sign for father either that or she was just scratching her forehead. We are so excited for our little baby girl. She is strong and healthy and extremely active. Sorry the pictures aren't the best quality but thats what we got for now.

The Boat Launch

My parent's view of the San Diego fires as they flew in for a visit.

A few good pictures of the growing belly.

So it's been awhile since I've last updated. We've managed to keep ourselves pretty busy. After Lance returned from his hunting trip we went down to San Diego to meet up with my parents. They were in town for a boat launch. We were afraid they wouldn't be able to come because of all the fires, but luckily they were able to come with just a few adjustments in the weekend's schedule. We met up with them and an intimate group involved with the construction and launch of the boat for dinner. The next day we headed to the ship yard for the ceremony. The formal ceremony had been canceled but the ship had to go out that day due to the tide schedule. Most of the people that had come for the ceremony were glad it wasn't as formal. They still had the champagne sprayed and bottle cracked on the ship. I wish I could give you a good description of the process involved in order to successfully launch the boat, but really you just have to see it for yourself or have someone more technically aware explain it for you. It really is an incredible site to see this massive piece of steel slide gracefully into the water. After the launch my mom, Lance, and I were given a tour of the ship yard. Very fascinating! Unfortunately my dad had to head back to VA so that was the end of our visit with him, but it was only the beginning of our visit with my mom. I promise more updates to come!

Safety first! The ship yard workers get around using these company vehicles. Pretty nice huh!

Pheasant Hunting

My dad thru his work gets to go hunting every once in a while, and sometimes I get to tag along. Last weekend we went pheasant hunting in South Dakota. It was great!! The company that pays for the trip calls them "Business Trips". I am always more than happy to go on these "Business Trips" as we get pampered beyond belief. The whole weekend consists of hunting, eating, and football. I don't think life gets ANY better than that.As always it was another great hunt, as we got our limit both days. Thanks Pops.

Happy Belated Birthday!

The same weekend we went to the Strong Man Comp we celebrated Stasy's birthday! It was so fun to have Whitney in town too. We all meet at the Strong Man Comp and then went out to celebrate at BJ's and a roller rink. I have known Stasy for 7 years now and every year she always chooses to go roller skating on her birthday. This year really made me miss all the fun times I had in Provo with my girl friends. It also made me realize how old we are. Besides the parents that came along with their 8 year old children, we were the oldest crowd there. It was still a lot of fun. Then I went with Stasy and Whitney for a girls slumber party! I haven't done that in a while. Good times. Thanks Stasy for getting us out roller skating and thanks Whitney for having a sleep over! I feel like a freshman in college again! I wish I could have been with the girls the following weekend for Whitney's 26th B-day celebration, I heard it was a lot of fun too. So happy birthday again to Stasy and Whitney!

Pacific Crest Trail

A few weekends ago Jessica and I were able to escape city life and go camping for the weekend. It was fun to get away, and it was really the first chance we have had to see the California mountains. I think Jessica and I are still partial to what Utah and Colorado have to offer. We did car camping, because the 4runner makes an almost perfect bed. In the morning we got up early and did a short stretch of the pacific coast trail. In one of the pictures you will notice we just happened to pick a weekend when a HUGE fire was burning thousands of acres. We had a great time.

Worlds Strongest Man Competition

About a month ago I found out they would be holding the Worlds Strongest Man Competition in Anaheim. For those of you who don't know it is the crazy competition you see on ESPN where they lift cars and stuff. So on Saturday Jessica and I headed down to see the fire engine pull, and I have to say it was AWESOME. The competitors are HUGE most of them are 6'2-6'7, and weight any where from 290-340. It was awesome to see them try to pull a 20 ton fire truck 25 meters. Anyways it was definately one of the highlights of my year, I have grown up watching the competitions, so it was neat to finally attend one. Everyone will have to look for us in December when they air the competition, we got there early, so we had front row seats.










This is the truck they pulled, they had 75 seconds to pull it 25 meters. The fastest time was around 41 seconds.

















This is my favorite strong man, his name is Mariusz Pudzianowski, he is from Poland is a 3 time winner. He will probably win the 2007 title as well. He is trying to be the winningest competitor ever. He is a BEAST!!! All of the guys are big, but he is ripped, you can't tell, but he has a 6 pack.










This is Quincy's favorite strong man, His name is Chuck McHarryback, his nickname is "Cutoffs" for obvious reasons.








After the event all of the guys were just walking around, this might be the GREATEST picture I EVER take, it is going above our bed. I mean how awesome is that. Jess is flexing with Magnus Samuelsson 1998 strongman. He has been in the worlds strongest man a record 10 straight years, so pretty much he is a legend.