I'm 20 weeks....yahoo! You can see below I finally have a little baby bump. I was very excited to be 20 weeks so that we could find out the gender of our little one. The ultrasound was crazy for us. It was incredible to see our little baby on the screen. The ultrasound tech had a hard time getting good pictures because our baby is a mover. But we did find out the gender.....we are having a BOY!!! Due May 10th, 2011 :) :)

Ugly Sweater Reunion

My high school group of friends FINALLY got together for a little Ugly Sweater Party Reunion. It was great to see everyone. We had a good time....however neither Josh or I won the ugly sweater contest. Let's just hope we can all get together again soon...hint hint guys ;) 4 years is way too long!

My hubs is a graduate!

Yay! Josh is now officially done with his Bachelor's Degree! I couldn't be happier and of course, he couldn't be happier to be done with this chapter. He got his Bachelors of Science & Biology at UVU. He's like me though....he's spent his college career at Snow College, Utah State University, and finally Utah Valley University. To celebrate I hosted a family dinner at our place. It turned out good, but you don't realize how little space you have until you're trying to fit 15 people in comfortably for dinner. And being a lame-o I forgot to take a few pictures.

Unfortunately, Josh doesn't get to be in the clear yet. Getting his Bachelor's is only one step in his final goal....graduating from Dental School. We're still waiting to hear back from all the school's he has applied to. We are unsure of all the details of our future for the next few years but we know at some point its going to involve Dental School. Yay for more school ;) We just keep telling outselves it will all be worth it in the end!

New York City

I'm am the luckiest girl. For my graduation, as well as my aunts (she got her Masters) she took all of the girls on a trip to NYC! I was super excited and got to cross it off my life's to do list. We stayed in a hotel right next to Times Square.

We did lots of shopping, of course.

We saw the Statue of Liberty....freezing!

Took a tour all around the city, saw Harlem, museums, Central Park, Ground Zero, Empire State Building, Chinatown, Little Italy, etc. etc.

Went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Shopped at Macy's (Nations biggest deparment store).

Ate dinner in Little Italy, fabulous.

Met lots of funny people.

Here are a fraction of the pictures:

Bad Romance

So I had to share this, because it was so entertaining to me. I was watching The Sing Off and this all male group did a song to Lady Gaga's 'Bad Romance'. Love loved it, made me smile.

16 Weeks!

Yes, its true....I am now just over 16 weeks along. You can see my tummy picture below. As you can see I still don't have a real baby bump....just look chubby....love it ;) We find out what the gender is at my 20 week appointment, which they refused to set before Christmas, so the big announcement will happen on Dec 28th, I can't wait!!!

Thanksgiving Time

This year we went to my side for Thanksgiving. We were SUPPOSED to start off our day like last year (running a 5K)...but that didn't happen. And I was glad because it was freeeeeezing! However, we still got some physical activity in. My dad set up a Turkey Bowl game and it turned out quite good.....and funny. My mom and I just drove over to watch, take pics, film. It turned out to be a good game. My dad's team lost....so now they want revenge....next year.

We went to my Grandma Stape's for Thanksgiving dinner...it was delicious! Then we headed to the Petersen side for dessert....our typical routine. It was a good day, I got stuffed, also heard some pregnancy horror stories-that's always a good time.

We also got lots of shopping and playing in....using up our vacation weekend well. It was mine & Joshs' first time doing some Black Friday shopping. We went at midnight and seriously....people were going insane. I think they all lost their minds. Needless to say I will not go back again next year!

Christmas Crafting

I got my craft itch again....this time I got to satisfy it with crafts for my absolute favorite time of year....Christmas! I made some mini-christmas trees....they turned out cute and weren't hard at all. Seriously...took me about an hour.

If you'd like to try it out here is how:

-Prep: buy 2-3 foam cones in different sizes, 5-6 pieces of scrapbook paper cut 1" wide/2" long, silver pins, bows/etc for the top of the tree


-Start with the base of the cone. Take one strip of paper folding it in half-pinning the top of the paper (where the two ends meet) to the cone. Repeat in rows until you get all the way to the top (alternating the different kinds/colors of paper).


-When you get to the top you can add ribbon, star, bow, whatever you want as your tree topper.


-Vwalla! You're finished! Super easy just like I said!

Stape Family Pics

We finally got some overdue family pictures done on my side. We took them in downtown SLC and then behind this pretty old church up by the U. Here are my favs:

My poor dog..

Oh Romeo. My cute dog got a little too shaggy and was starting to look homeless so we finally got him to the dog groomers. His hair grows so dang fast that we told them to make it really short all over. Big no no. haha.

Before pic:

After work I went to pick him up and I wasn't sure if that was even my dog! Poor Romeo looks like a rat with really long skinny legs and huge ears. I literally stared and laughed at him for about a half hour after I brought him home. We made him ugly but I still love him :) He has so little hair now that he shivers in our house so I had to buy him a doggy sweater. lol, if you ever meet Romeo I promise he is the cutest dog you'll ever see when his hair is longer! Here is the after pic:

We're having a baby!

Yes, you read it right...we are having a baby! We are so excited and can't wait to welcome baby Sharp. I'm due May 13th and I have a feeling that it's going to get here a lot sooner than I expect.

We waited until my 12-week appointment to tell anyone, to make sure the baby was healthy and everything was rolling smoothly. Once we got the thumbs up we let the secret out. It was really exciting and I think most everyone was completely shocked. My side of the family was probably the most suprised, probably because i'm the oldest kid, no grandkids or great grandkids yet so it's the first!

Our 12-week appoint was fun. We got to hear the baby's heartbeat and it was a little surreal. I almost didn't feel pregnant until that day because I didn't feel different and I certainly wasn't showing yet...but once I heard the little heart beat it all became reality. So yeah, that leads me to the topic of pregnancy. I have been totally lucky, no sickness or anything! I was only a tiny bit nausiated for a few weeks, but i've never thrown up or anthing. The only difference is i've been a lot more hungry. I don't really crave anything crazy, just random stuff like waffles. Mostly, its just that certain things aren't good to me anymore....like cereal. Anyways, thats the update! 13 weeks down.....27ish to go!

And here is my 12 week pic.

Halloween

On Halloween we continue the Stapley family tradition by going to my parents house, having some dinner, and enjoying the trick-or-treating festivities. I dressed up as Michael Jackson (R.I.P.) and Josh dressed up as a member of KISS....it was fun. I'll never get to old to dress up, and luckily I married a man who loves it just as much.

Unfortunately, we had a negitive turn of events at our party. My grandma Pete showed up complaining about chest and body pains (all symptoms of a heart attack), it took a while of convincing because she didn't want to miss the party (that's my grandma for ya!). But we finally got her to go to the E.R. She ended up having to stay overnight at the hospital while they ran a bazillion tests. I guess they all came up negitive so she was able to go home today. Get feeling better grandma! (P.S. check out the picture of Romeo....we put him in the pirate costume....so adorable). In other news, Josh is still as busy as one can be juggling school and work. Luckily he has just over a month before he graduates and then we'll finally get some more time together and he'll get to breathe a little easier.

Fall Festivities

Fall is such a fun time of year. I love the weather and upcoming holidays, Josh loves the football, makes for a happy household :)

Last weekend my fam came down and we went to this farm place in Pleasant Grove. They had a petting zoo, potato sack slide, corn maze, etc. We enjoyed ourselves walking around and then did the corn maze at the end. We made it out of the corn maze successfully, which i was proud of, beacuse usually I find a shortcut and give up.

Can't wait for Halloween next week....love dressing up!

Snow College Alumni

We visited one of my most favorite places this weekend....Ephraim, UT! I loved my 2 years at Snow College, loved them. Josh & I went to the Homecoming football game-it turned out to be a great game and Josh had a good time getting to see all of his old coaches again. After the game we went to Fat Jacks (it's called Roy's now), for some delicious pizza. You can't ask for a better Snow College visit than that.

The rest of the weekend we spent in Orangeville. There is a new addition to the Sharp family, the adorable baby Parly. We went to her baby blessing on Sunday and spent the day hanging out with the family. It was a great weekend.....and now it's almost real life time starting tomorrow. Yuck.

Goodbye Dwain

Yes, it's true, our tiny fury hampster friend Dwain has found a new home. We had a good time with Dwain, sometimes, and it was time for him to take the next step.

Truth be told we got the hamster when we thought we couldn't get a dog. Then, of course, a month later we got the okay to get Romeo and then we were stuck with Dwain. Let's admit it, we're not hamster people, and thats okay. That is why we found a new home for him.

Dwain, have a good and fufilling life. Long live the Dwainster.

Wreath Making

I caught my crafting bug again, this time I decided to make a fall wreath. It's super easy, here is how:


1. Bend a wire coat hanger into a circle.
2. Buy floral leaves (fall colors or whatever you want), cut the leaves into smaller stems.
3. Place the leaves on the hanger and secure with floral tape or a brown string.
4. Continue securing more leaves on the hanger in the same direction.
5. Repeat until it's at your desired thickness.
6. Shazam, your done :)

Our 1st Anniversary

I can't believe it's already been a whole year since we got hitched! It's gone by oh so fast, but not at the same time.

Today we celebrated in style, visiting the SLC Temple where we were married and Memory Grove where our reception was. It was fun going back and walking down memory lane. We ended off the night with a nice dinner out. As you notice we took a picture holding up the 'number 1'. I decided that every anniversary we are going to hold up the number of years and put it in our 'anniversary album'. Then lets say, when we're 50, 60, 70.... we can look back and see all of the years that we've celebrated and how very old we have gotten ;)

With that said-marriage has been an amazing experience. Of course it has its tough times of adjustment but it is very rewarding. I definitely married my best friend and made the best decision of my life on this very day last year. One year down, a bazillion to come :)

Camping

This weekend some of the Sharps planned a camp trip up in Logan because some of the guys wanted to hunt for Grouse. My parents were also in Florida during that weekend, Josh & I were watching Bree for the weekend and so we took her along. It was A LOT colder that I expected, got below freezing in the night. Luckily, we got to sleep in this big tent with a stove so it kept us nice and warm. While we were there we spent a lot of time around the campfire, Josh showed us how to shoot some guns, and we went on a hike and looked at the beautiful landscape-you can see for forever out there!!

Labor Day Weekend

Who doesn't love a 3 day weekend? I know that I certainly have enjoyed it and the day off. Josh and I didn't go out of town so we decided to keep busy and plan some fun stuff.

Josh's old mission companion, Elder Pak, and his wife met up with us on Saturday. We went on a hike up behind our place in Pleasant Grove and then got some Korean food. I have to say, the more i'm exposed to Korean food the more I like it! Later that day Josh's mission president gave us some extra tickets to the BYU game, we were stoked! Although i'm definitely not a BYU fan i've been wanting to get to a game, as has Josh, so we were more than happy to accept them. On top of that his old mission pres is a season ticket holder so we got free passes to this VIP tent before the game, got free food and treated very well before and during the game-our day couldn't have turned out better!

Then today, Monday, we went to Hogel Zoo! It was way fun and the weather was perfect. I hadn't been to the zoo in years so it was good to go back. However, I sorta felt out of place being there without dragging 2 or more kids around in a stroller! ha, it was super busy but a good way to end our weekend holiday.