She (and he) grew!

This next one is my due date, January 19th.  When is this baby gonna get here?

This is January 23rd, three days before the baby came.

So do I look pregnant from the back? This is one week before I was due.

I do look preggo from the front! (Though this is clear back in October..)

You can't deny the cheesy heart/belly shot...

And one of the happy expectant couple...

New Years Eve

Our first event of the evening was eating out at Carver's with friends.  Delish!  We then made an appearance at a stake family dance.  Dancing after gorging on steak is difficult enough, but even more so when you are almost nine months pregnant.  Fortunately, we soon moved to our house to play Bezer Wizzer, the greatest triva game of all time.  Afterwards, we had apple cider toasts and watched the ball drop!

Christmas

So, I was something of a Grinch this Christmas.  I told Clint that Christmas was cancelled (and I basically didn't buy any gifts).  So he bought some gifts for himself, wrapped them, opened them at his parents house and made a big show about how I am such a great wife for finding him such gifts.  Hah.  Typical Clint.  I did give him a coupon book with such gems as "a whole day of being able to answer questions with yes or no, no further explanation required."  If you know Clint, you'll know that he's very neurotic about being "questioned."  But apparently this is a man thing, not just a Clint thing because I found the idea online! I also included a bunch of other useful coupons that were more boring such as doing the dishes or making him some "macho nachos" while he watches sports.  You know, man stuff.

Clint did a great job at being Christmasy when I wasn't much in the mood.  (I think it's because I'm stressed about work and the baby coming etc.)  He got me some baby monitors, a bunch of cute maternity shirts, tickets to see Les Mis at the Hale theater, some gloves with special fingers so you can use a touch screen phone, and some other doodads. He also tricked me and got the Cajun Night Before Christmas even though he pretended he didn't. :)  I read it last year on Christmas Eve with his family but just from finding the text online.  This year we had the book--and the pictures make everything better. :)   We had a bigger group for Christmas Eve this year, but sadly Clint's brother Greg and fam aren't in the picture though they came back a bit later in the evening. 

On Christmas Eve we had a feast of ham, "heavenly" potatoes, fresh rolls, cranberry dip, salad, pumpkin roll etc.  We chatted, I read the story, and in the evening we played a rousing game of Taboo.  My team won, of course. :)  

On Christmas Day we had a nice brunch, opened presents, then visited Grandpa in the rehab center where he is recovering from a surgery.  Clint and I briefly tried video chatting with my family, but a three way video chat doesn't work very well with six kids involved. Furthermore, apparently gchat won't do split screen, so we just watched the screen schizophrenically flash back and forth for a while before we had to quit.  We then watched half of Forrest Gump on TV while waiting to talk more to my family (which didn't happen). So we played more games with Clint's family (Battle of the Sexes, Imagine If) and watched Elf all whilst eating a lot of random Christmas garbage.  A fine holiday, I say. 

Clint and I actually stayed in Idaho to Saturday.  I played games with the fam one other night (Farkle and Taboo again) though Clint scammed out to watch sports.  I'm glad his family likes games because I love games! We also watched Baby Mama which I have only seen once before, but both times I was surprised at how funny that movie is.  Siigh.  I had a lot of fun relaxing with the fam and being a bum.  Clint was pretty much as big of a bum as I was, so this is my weak justification for not helping out more.  Oops.  Maybe I am not the best guest, but I am lucky enough to have the best in-laws!

Baby Shower Bombay

I was fortunate enough to also have a baby shower with the wives of "the crew"--Clints' group of friends that I married into so to speak.  The lovely Erika and Lindsay (who only just had a babies themselves) hosted along with Ameri.  Basically we stuffed ourselves with delicious Indian food and talked.  Mmm.  Peshwari naan....mango lassi....sigh.  I submit to you that Bombay House cannot be beat for the best Indian food around.  I am lucky to have such great women in my life.

Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving Clint and I drove down to Flagstaff  for Thanksgiving to visit my fam for Thanksgiving.  My brother and his wife live in Flagstaff and my parents flew out.  Unfortunately, my sister and her husband just got back from China, so their family wasn't able to join the festivities.

Of course, one of the things the menfolk wanted to do was go shooting.  It seems like a Thanksgiving in Flagstaff sort of thing to do.  Also Clint and I went shooting when we had Thanksgiving in Flagstaff with my brother before, so it's sort of a tradition.  And let's be honest, what with my Republican family, it seems to fit.  Here are the men folks posing with a shotgun (I think.  There was also a rifle at some point and I can't pretend I really even know the difference.  I believe it's the shot gun that you shoot the clay pigeons with though and that's what they were doing here.)  Watching the clay pigeons was pretty entertaining--especially the debacle of trying to throw the things, hehe.

I also attempted a little shooting at some soup cans with the hand gun.  Last Thanksgiving Derek had me shoot some giant crazy gun of his and since then I stick to the small stuff without backlash.  This is Derek attempting to tell me how to hold the thing.  (Yes, I should have edited this photo, but I am way behind in blogging, so too bad.)  The men also shot at the cans etc. but it was less exciting to watch though it was nice just being outside under clear blue skies. 

For our actual feast I made the Stosich cranberry salsa dip.  (I have since given the recipe to my mom and two people from my book club just this season).  Here is the recipe for all. We also enjoyed the traditional Murdock cranberry fluff salad, green beans, and of course mashed potatoes, turkey, and my dad's gravy.

My brother's birthday was the day right after Thanksgiving.  To celebrate we went to a Mexican restaurant and took some fried ice cream home for dessert.  (The kids were done with the restaurant.)  You can't see it very well, but below is some fried ice cream with a candle, hehe.  Anyway, a good time was had by all, and I managed to survive the 9+ hour drive while 8ish months pregnant very well.  :)

Ward Baby Shower

In November I had a ward (mostly) baby shower which was a lot of fun.  It was hosted by my friend Jacqui who was in the young women's presidency with me, and assisted by Stephanie and Caryn who also were in young women's at the time.

(Carynn is on the left and Jacqui is on the right.)

(Stephanie is in the middle.)

 Above you can see the delicious feast they made, and the cute favors.  Stephanie also crocheted me this cute fleecy blanket, but I didn't take a photo of it apparently (oops).  It was a lot of fun to visit with friends and family and talk about babies!  I figure I'll write thank you notes once the baby is born when I have random time during baby naps etc.  (Or maybe I won't have any time at all, hah.  We shall see.)  I was really grateful for the support of so many people!

Dine O' Round, Melting Pot, Faustina

So I'm really behind in blogging...I guess I should catch up over the break.  But of course, this may be an excuse not to grade the research papers.  Hmm.  Anyway, let me tell you about the Dine O' Round!  Every fall some Salt Lake restaurants participate in the Dine O' Round and offer deals.  This year Clint and I decided to try The Melting Pot.  It's one of those places that it seems like everyone has been to, and we never had.

The bottom line?  Their deal for the Dine O'Round wasn't really a deal at all and didn't include dessert (which seems sort of important at a fondue place) so we didn't use it.  However, I really did enjoy the food.

We had the Wisconsin Cheese Trio fondue which I thought was pretty good, but Clint didn't like.  I was sort of worried about the whole wine part--does cooking wine really "cook out" when it was dumped into a fondue pot right in front of you?  Next time we probably won't get a cheese fondue.  We did have salads--all I remember it that they were small.  For the main course we used the basic cooking style, seasoned court bouillon.  It was perfectly good--I feel the other styles are probably a waste. I liked the teri sirloin, the shrimp, and the pot stickers.  I did not like the duck, the citrus pork, or really the chicken.  They also give you veggies which were all great and here's the best part-- a zillion sauces to try!

Clint knows I love sauce.

We also had a yummy dessert, The Flaming Turtle.  How could I resist? Turtles are my favorite candy after all.  It was quite tasty, and it's fun to watch them light it on fire.

Of course, I also had to scope out the bathroom.  Well, I did have to go, but I like checking things out in general.  If I'm going to go to a fancy restaurant, I feel that I like aborsbing every last drop of ambience.  Here is a picture of the hip sinks. (Yeah, I'm a dork.  Also I have a thing about bathrooms.  I still haven't forgotten the bathroom of my soul on Isla Mujeres in Mexico. I should post photos of that--I wasn't blogging yet at that time.)

We also had a Dine O' Round lunch on a rainy day at a place called Faustina.  Sigh.  I love trying new restaurants.  I suppose this might be substantially more difficult in just a few weeks when I have a BABY.  Anyway, it appears I neglected to take photos at this place, but I will tell you that it has a modern vibe with purple tile, weird black treeish sculptures, and new age music. Everything on their lunch menu is 12 bucks including a yummy strawberry cake for dessert.  Not too shabby for a fancy hip restaurant downtown. (However, there were lots of "upgrades" for more money.) I got a sandwich that was a special--I think it was a chicken parmesan type sandwich with pesto and marinara.  It was awesome.  However, I was sadly disappointed by the salad that came with it--it was over dressed with some poppy seed dressing that I didn't like.  Who wants a mushy over dressed salad?  Anyway, I think Clint got the chipotle cheeseburger which was also quite tasty.  And like I said, both came with a delicious strawberry cake for dessert.  I think next time I'd try the lasagna.  Mmm.  I'm making myself hungry here.

Oh btw, I did go to the bathroom here as well--very weird bathrooms with a mix of ghetto and chic.