Nothing says sudden urge

like a baby dancing on your bladder.

Peanut, I love to feel you move, but let's make sure we kick up instead of down, okay?

We may look nice...

but we've got fire in our eyes.

Just kidding. This picture popped up on my desktop last night and we were dying laughing at the insane red-eye we've got. Thank goodness we have a better camera now!

Speaking of not nice... last night we got our textbooks. Yowzas!! Thank goodness it's my last semester. 

p.s. Cast your vote on the right-- is Peanut a boy or girl? We find out Friday! AHHHH! Not sure why the poll listed the question twice... that's a bit annoying!

Hanging out

Are you a google+ user? If not, you should be! I am definitely not being paid to praise them, but I benefited from its coolness yesterday and wanted to share. My brother Jeff was released from his mission a few days ago! He is still in Prague, taking my parents around his city, so we haven't been able to see him in person yet. We tried to set up a big video chat session with my whole family, but because of time zone differences and Church meeting differences, we couldn't all meet up with the folks in Prague. Tyler and I got to skype with him and he seems great! Last night, however, those of us in America decided we wanted to try to get on one big video chat session, even if we couldn't all be there. So my siblings and I hopped on google+ and had a "hangout." It was so great! We had all the siblings there except Jeff, and even my brother-in-law Andrew was able to join us from Iraq! I couldn't stop thinking all night how grateful I am for technology and all the cool things we're able to do because of it! I wish I had taken a screen shot of the hangout. It was pretty rad. 

Tyler and I have been pretty lazy lately. Lots of our friends are returning from internships and what-not, so it's pretty much just been us hangin' out. I always love that, but because we are both so bad at making decisions, that usually just means that we're being lazy at home. So to break it up, we hiked the Y on Saturday morning! What a great way to celebrate being 20 weeks pregnant. Half-way baby!!

Not the most attractive picture, but we made it to the top!

We will find out if Peanut is a boy or girl on Friday... I can't really think about that at night or I lose sleep. I'm so excited to know! I'm learning that Peanut likes his/her space. If I have my computer on my lap and it's touching my stomach, Peanut will repeatedly kick right where the computer is! Yesterday I was holding Tyler's hand in church and his elbow was touching my side. Peanut kicked and kicked right there where Tyler's elbow was! It was so funny. Peanut also moves a lot when we're in the car- I'm curious to know if it's because he/she likes car rides or hates them! Guess we'll find out in a few months. :) It's crazy how this little one already seems to have a personality.

To do this week: buy textbooks (yuck), become members of Costco (yay!!), go to the ultrasound on Friday (YAY!!) and enjoy our last few days of freedom before school begins. Sounds good to me!

p.s. I finally figured out how to make pictures big. Now I feel like one of those cool bloggers! 

In case you're ever in Columbus, TX

Before we left Texas, we went on a kayaking adventure with Tyler's high school buddy Kevin and his girlfriend Amy! We drove out to Columbus and went kayaking down the Colorado River. I didn't realize the Colorado River came all the way down to our neck of the woods! I learn somethin' new every day I guess. 

Before we hopped in the river!

On the river, we found some friends! Mooooo

Kevin and Amy

The water wasn't very deep, so there were only a few sections where we could get out and swim without getting tangled up in slimy river gunk.

Pretty sure we almost tipped tons of times getting in and out!

Luckily, the train rolled by after we had gone under these bridges.

Can you see my bump? I'm 18 weeks here!

After the 6.5 mile journey, we were sunburnt and tired. But it was so worth it! We totally recommend Howell Canoe Livery for all your tubing, kayaking, and canoeing needs in Houston! They were awesome. They suggested we check out Columbus's claim to fame- they have the 2nd largest live oak tree in Texas! :) It was so impressive.

Thanks Kevin and Amy for a fun day!

2 years {and 6 days} ago

we got married.

Best. day. ever.

I smiled the other day when we were at the Distribution Center and the cashier asked us if we had been married a few weeks. Maybe in part because we were buying garments and I probably looked like a newbie, but still! She said we look like newlyweds. Compliment? I think so! It felt pretty good. When we answered that we just celebrated our 2nd anniversary, she said, "Well, you must be doing something right then!" But really, the right-est thing I did was say YES.  I love him more every day and am the luckiest girl in the entire world. 

Um, hi.

I've had some people tell me I haven't blogged in a long time... where did July go, anyway? I'm feeling the weirdness of time more and more these days. The combination of anticipating Peanut coming into our family and being busy with our families has made time feel slow AND fast!

Biggest events since I last wrote: Sister's Week, G&M leaving on their missions, and coming back to Utah! Hence the lack of posting... we've been busy. Steph and Kim both came down to Houston, and when Laura got back from school, we had 5/6 sisters. Not bad, but we missed having Linds there terribly. We had lots of fun swimming, working out in the mornings, and crafting. I'll have to get pictures from my mom and post them later, but we made some pretty cute stuff! It was way fun.

Garrett and Mitchell left for Utah on the 30th, so we spent lots of time with them during their last few days packing and playing games. We love them so much and miss them, but they're both doing great and will be such awesome missionaries!

We are back in Utah! We left to drive back on Tuesday and got here Friday. It was a fun drive, full of adventure- as all our road trips seem to be. I guess it really began with lunch at Taste of Texas with the Juergens fam... delish. If you ever go to Houston and want an amazing meal, try Taste of Texas. We left straight from there, full and happy and excited. Randall and Crystal moved to Dallas at the end of this last school year, so we stopped at their place for the night. They were so sweet to put us up and feed us and show us around their town!! I hadn't been there since my family lived there when I was 11... it'd changed so much. We left semi-early the next morning and drove all day. Then weird stuff started happening... the cruise control went off, we weren't able to accelerate, and the car was making a funny, high-pitched whine. Really? So instead of making it to Farmington, NM like we planned, we stopped in Albuquerque around 5 and took the car in to be checked out. Yep, the transmission was going out. No way to know how close we were to actual death, but the nice guy that helped us at the dealership said to bring it back in the next morning to be looked at in more detail. So we stayed the night in Albuquerque and watched the SYTYCD finale and read Harry Potter.

We took the car in again Thursday morning and, after a few hours, were told that we would probably make it home. So reassuring. But we went for it anyway, and left around noon. We made it to Moab and weren't sure how much further we could make it, but there were no rooms available in any of the hotels in Moab and we didn't have our camping stuff! So we went a bit further to Green River and found a room there. Our room even had a heart-shaped tub in it! We laughed and joked that something had finally gone right for us, but then we saw bugs crawling out of the drain in the tub. Guess not! We spent that night reading more HP. That's one of the reasons we love road trips- we get to read! We finished the 3rd book and are about halfway through the 4th now.

Friday morning we finally made it home! We spent the afternoon doing laundry, getting groceries, and relaxing. We even rode our bikes to the temple grounds to read in the shade- it's just so fun to be back here! I'm loving the weather. We left our window open last night and it felt so great. Today was spent doing some shopping, cleaning and organizing, and just enjoying being together! Tyler will start work again next week and I'll keep working on my Humanities class. Two weeks until school starts!

We will find out if Peanut is a boy or girl in about a week! We can't wait to know. I have finally started to feel Peanut move, which is so fun. It's crazy! We love our Peanut and can't wait to meet him. Or her. Who knows??

Farewelling and stuff

I can't believe how quickly this summer is passing by... it's so crazy. In just a few short weeks we'll pack up and make the long drive back to Utah. I'm sad to leave because it's been a great summer, but I'm also really excited to begin my last semester of college!! Tyler and I will be taking a class together, and that'll be fun. I recently finished my anthropology class, and now I just have to take a humanities class before school starts. I'll get out of this tunnel after all!

We spent lots of time with both our families this week and had tons of fun. My sister Steph is here with her kids, so we did a lot of swimming and shopping. We watched "The Adjustment Bureau" and joked all night about adjusting people's lives. 

This weekend was Garrett and Mitchell's mission farewell! They both did a wonderful job speaking and they sang a beautiful duet. Guess who was the other speaker? ME! Not sure why the bishop chose the new member of the Juergens clan, but oh well. The house was hopping last night as pretty much the whole city of Houston came over to say goodbye to G&M. :) They are two very loved guys and will be stellar missionaries. 

I didn't last very long at the party last night. Despite taking a two-hour nap, I couldn't seem to get rid of this sore throat and constant headache. Still can't, so Peanut and I are takin' it easy today. But it's the perfect day for taking it easy... we're finally getting a classic Houston rainstorm! It's been a while since we had one of those. I think I'll keep the lights off and curl up on the couch with a movie. Sounds good.

crybaby

Isn't that the saddest face you've ever seen?

I feel so blessed to have not been very sick so far during this pregnancy. I am pulling out of this now, but for a while I was having night sickness instead of morning. Other than that, the only times I've felt sick are when I need to eat! So I feel super lucky. One thing that both Tyler and I are both still adjusting to, however, is my range of unpredictable emotions. Holy moly, I cry so often! Poor Tyler doesn't quite know how to handle me when I'm bawling because the family playing on Family Feud just won $20,000. Seriously Camille??? But he is so sweet and understanding and rarely laughs at me. I'm sure it's all pretty entertaining for him.

The worst was the other day- I believe it was Saturday morning. I was having a dream (my dreams are the other funny thing- SO vivid and strange) that I was in the back of a van with my brother Jeff, who is serving a mission in Prague and is coming home in a few weeks. Jeff was always a pest growing up (fulfilling his duties as the first boy in the family) and I'm sure half of the words I've spoken to him in his life have consisted of "Stop!" Well, he was no different in my dream. He just would not get off of me-- hitting me, laying on me, I don't really remember. I just know I was so bothered. I started to yell at him in my dream, pretty mean stuff. *Please note: Tyler's arm was on my back at this point. Not unusual, as he is a sprawler in his sleep.* Finally, I wake up when I hear myself yell out loud, "Jeff, GET OFF OF ME!!!" Apparently I was bothered by Tyler's arm! Tyler didn't really wake up at this point, but I was shaken by my own outburst. I started crying uncontrollably- how could I yell at my brother like that? How could I yell at my husband like that? I am such a mean person, I need to be a better sister, I need to be more patient, etc. were all thoughts racing through my mind as my body was being racked with sobs. Oh my goodness. So Tyler, half asleep but knowing the drill, was sweet and comforting and trying not to laugh, I'm sure. I finally calm down after what I'm sure was a long time and the hilarity of the situation finally hits me. I imagined the whole scenario from Tyler's perspective- being yelled at while asleep at 6 in the morning, then hearing your crazy wife sobbing because of a dream that she was mean to her brother! So then I started laughing, almost as uncontrollably as I was crying. The rest of the day, thankfully, was tearless. But it was quite the roller coaster first thing in the morning- from anger to depression to laughter!! Poor Tyler.

Okay, I admit it.

-While writing my last post, I had to look up the word hiatus to make sure that a) I was spelling it correctly and b) that it meant what I thought it meant. Maybe by the time I graduate college I won't have to do dumb stuff like that? Oh let's be real. I'll probably always have to do that.

-Though I struggled through the first book I had to read for my anthropology class, I'm totally eating up this second one. People are seriously fascinating! I was scared of the title- "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down." Come on- you would be too. But it's about a little Hmong girl with epilepsy (a disease the Hmong people call 'the spirit catches you and you fall down') and the struggle between the Hmong culture and western medicine. It's awesome!

-I have an itch to cut my hair. It has grown pretty long, but my bangs are not keepin' up. Sooo tempting just to chop it.

-It kinda bugs me how many people refer to their husbands in strange ways on their blogs... calling him "husband" or "Mr. 'X'" or whatever. Makes me feel bad that I just call my husband Tyler! Oh wait, no it doesn't. That's his name.

-Except for Sundays, I don't really wear makeup much anymore. Kinda love it.

-Can't really button my pants up these days. BUT, I have a fantastic reason for it... we are having a baby!!!! And we are thrilled! I'm about 14 weeks along and am feeling pretty good. Due date is January 7th! We refer to our baby as Peanut currently... I don't really know who started that, but I think that's better than saying "it." I really don't like that. We can't wait to find out if Peanut is a boy or girl, but my doc here in Houston won't do another ultrasound until 20 weeks and by that point we'll be back in Utah, so we're trying to be patient. I don't think I'll bother posting pics of the first ultrasound because no one really likes looking at those. Plus, those pictures are so outdated- Peanut has grown so much since they were taken over a month ago! That teeny tiny baby completely stole our hearts. We are sooo excited!!

A blogging groove...

I need to find one. It's been pretty easy for me just to take a little internet hiatus! But things have calmed down a bit and here I am. The reunion was great- it was so fun to spend lots of time with our family! It was a blast. We've been spending lots of time with both our immediate families since then, which has been good. I hadn't seen Lindsay since Tyler and I got married, so it was about time! It was great to see her kiddos too... I miss them already. They just moved to Ohio- so far away! But I've never been to Ohio, and now I have a great reason to visit. I also spent a week with Steph and her kiddos in Vegas/San Diego. It was a great week and I took zero pictures because we were just so busy! Between Mikael's wedding, being a block away from the beach, a day at Sea World, and 16 kids runnin' around, cameras were the last things on our minds. So just know it was fun. And exhausting. I get why kids typically come one at a time, because me starting out with 3 would not be a great idea. Kudos to people who have multiples!

Since being back from Vegas/San Diego, we've been busy busy busy. Tyler had Friday and yesterday off of work for the 4th of July, so we spent some time on Friday and Saturday driving around Houston trying to figure out where we'd like to live when we come back after graduation next year! It's so crazy that we finally get to think realistically about that kind of stuff. Not that we have any idea still, but we're getting to know areas better and are finding great places. We've spent lots of time swimming and watching movies and playing ping pong with the fam and just enjoying time off together. I hated to see Tyler go to work this morning! But reality always comes around.

We had a good 4th of July. It felt a little weird because there's been a drought in Houston and they put a ban on all fireworks about a week beforehand. What's the 4th of July without fireworks?? So we went to a ward breakfast, had a fun game of softball with the Taylor fam, swam and had a barbeque, and watched True Grit. A very American day indeed.

Well, a pretty lame post after a month of absence. Maybe some pics will make it better? Here are some I took of the softball game yesterday:

 Home run, baby!

 Tyler and Kevin making sure Nathan's pitching was satisfactory

 Wow. I may not have gone to Langham Creek, but I've got Lobo pride now!

 The whole crew of softball players

The whole crew of supportive wives/mothers (and a sister)

And that's about it for our pics and our exciting stuff. Hopefully the rest of the summer will be mellow- not much travelling planned until the big trip back to Utah, so that's good. I'm still working on Independent Study classes and Tyler's internship is going great! He is blowing everyone away with his mad skills, as usual. He's the bomb. And I'm just trying to finish school as quickly as possible! Hooray for getting degrees and being done soon!