Baby Shower

So almost 3 weeks ago (I know, I'm a bad blogger) we had a baby shower for William! My mother-in-law and sisters-in-law threw the shower and the food was great and the games were fun! I appreciate them taking the time and effort to do it for Chris and I! And I'm so thankful for all those who attended and those who have given gifts! We definitely now feel more ready to have this baby! One game we played was the "guess how big around Nicole is" game and sad to say I surpassed my wildest guess (I was days away from being 32 weeks at the time of the shower)! Hopefully Will doesn't get too much bigger but I have the feeling he's a Hansen boy baby:) Anyways, here are lots of pictures of the event, so enjoy!

I love this!

Party favors and "Thank You" sign...thanks mom and Natalie :)

"Sweet William"

My mother-in-law and sister-in-law

Me and my pregnant sister-in-law

See my awesome rocking chair?!

The kids really liked helping open gifts :)

The rag quilt my mom made :)

Bear diaper bike...so cute!

Some of the guests

A picture at 33 weeks

Two-Thirds of the Way!

I am now officially in the third trimester of my pregnancy and I am thrilled that I am finally this far along! I'm more and more uncomfortable (hot all the time too) and having a harder time sleeping and doing things on my own these days but I've decided that I'm such a complainer and I just need to suck it up already! I'm sure Chris can't wait for Will to be born just so he doesn't have to hear me complain about being pregnant anymore. But on a good note, Will seems to be doing fine and I passed the 3-hour glucose tolerance test--which had me worried for a few days. Will is as active as ever and his movements have become more like "rolling" motions than kicking or jabbing motions. I often find myself watching my belly move because it's so visible now!

28 weeks

Chris thinks he's so funny taking a picture when I'm not looking

During President's Day weekend Chris and I went to Chicago with some of his family for the Chicago Auto show. It's the biggest car show in the United States and it was definitely one of the car shows I didn't mind going to. They had luxury and high-end cars and there's nothing like being able to actually see a $450,000 Lamborghini Murcielago! We only had Chris's iphone so all the pictures are of cars...figures. We made a trip to Giordano's Pizza (a must if you are in Chicago) and walked up and down Michigan Avenue a little bit. We went to the Chicago temple where we were able to do some family names for Eve's family. We then visited the Harley Davidson shop where I took full advantage of their free hot dogs (I had a few...) and Chris made me drop a few bucks in the donation bin because he was embarrassed by the pregnant lady chowing down.

Lamborghini Murcielago LP670-4 SV

Lamborghini Gallardo LP570-4 (black), Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder (yellow)

Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder

Mclaren MP4-12C

A red, Mustang convertible for Annabelle:)

Two weekends later we were able to attend Kimmy's high school play "Beauty and the Beast" where Kimmy played Mrs. Potts. She rented her costume from a costume shop and it was awesome! It was her official acting debut and she did great! She had a solo and was able to speak in an English accent the whole time. I can't wait to see what she's in next year!

The weather here in Ohio has been crazy the past few weeks. I'd heard that multiple seasons can be experienced in one day but I didn't believe it until it happened. Suffice it to say I am anxious for Mother Nature to be more consitent. I am, however, so happy when we have warmer, sunnier days. It literally puts me in a really good mood and it feels so nice to go outside and feel the sun and warmth beating down on me. I love it so much!

And speaking of warmer weather, Sunday was a beautiful, sunny day so Chris and I stuck around after church in the parking lot for an hour-and-a-half. Okay, so it wasn't just because of the weather. There happened to be a Ferrari 458 Italia (in Ferrari red color) in the parking lot. Our bishop works for Honda and was able to take the car for the weekend for research purposes. Chris examined every inch of that car and was able to sit in the driver seat, ask questions, and hear it start up and take off. He was in heaven! You may think that I'm such a good wife for not ditching Chris while he oodled this Ferrari, but it is so much fun to see Chris get excited about these things. And I'm glad I was able to be there to vouch for Chris's actually seeing and sitting in the Ferrari because not many people have or will get an opportunity like that.

Anyways, Chris and I have lots of things scheduled to get done over the next few weeks to prepare for baby Will. We are excited and anxious and nervous all at the same time and we pray that our Heavenly Father is helping to prepare us to be the best parents we can be to our son.

Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner!

Last month the Elder's Quorum had a ward dinner based around meals made from food storage supplies. Chris and I don't have a solid food storage supply yet, but we have enough food to get us through maybe 3 weeks without going to the store. Maybe. Anyways, everyone who came was supposed to bring something made with at least 1 part food storage. We decided to take Chris's concoction of read beans and rice mixed with sausage. Chris saw these Cajun Sides Red Beans and Rice packages at Wal-Mart one day and thought, "Hey, that looks good. I'd like to try that with sausage". Chris does that a lot, comes up with spontaneous food ideas. Usually they involve really spicy sauces or foods that are down-right gross to me (mac 'n cheese with garlic anyone?). Well, we tried it and we LOVED it! But it only works with this Cajun Sides brand. We tried it with Zatarain's and it did not taste nearly as good.

Anyways, back to the ward dinner. Everyone was asking us how we made this rice, beans, and sausage mix and if they could get the recipe. Some parents said their kids hated rice and beans but they ate this. I SO wished that I had this elaborate recipe to hand out but alas, I didn't. I fessed up that it was a store bought mix and that it was Chris's idea. But don't feel bad for me, feel happy for Chris. He won the prize of "Best Man-Made Dish" at the ward dinner and I couldn't be prouder! See, here's proof:

So the next time Chris wants to experiment with his crazy food ideas, I think I'll be a little more apt to go along with it! I love my little experimentor husband!

22 weeks!

All I can say is "Whoa"! Watch out all you previously pregnant women who thought you were big for how far along you were; Nicole is taking over that role! I just had a doctor's appointment and little Will is measuring just right for how far along I am, except his head is really round and his feet are wide. At least, that's what the doctor said! So it looks like he'll be a Hansen replica!

I'm feeling pretty good except for the fact that I'm to the point where I'm uncomfortable quite a bit. I tried to squeeze into some clothes today and it wasn't working for me! I can honestly say that I'm totally content with not having a big bust (normally) because it is NOT fun! I also don't fit into my pants anymore, like, at all. I looked like I was advertising for an aerobics video or something as I tried all sorts of positions to try to get my pants all the way on. Yeah, not so much fun either. So I guess it's time to break down and buy some maternity clothes (you heard that right Chris!).

Anyways, here is a picture of me at 22 weeks. I know I haven't been consistent about taking evenly dispersed pictures but I'm happy to have what I have. So go ahead, admire my "bump" while I can still call it that!

Breakfast for Dinner

I have always, always loved breakfast foods: french toast with powdered sugar, waffles with peanut butter, toast/biscuts with homemade strawberry jam, toasted bagels with cream cheese, hash browns, sausage, bacon, eggs, etc. I could go on forever! One of my favorite things growing up was either going to a place like Denny's with my family and being able to get breakfast food any time of the day or coming home from a long day of school/practice/rehearsal and smelling bacon sizzling on the stove.

Since I've been married I have really enjoyed being able to make what I like for meals and tonight I did just that! Using my BIL's recipe for crepes (pronounced "creps", not "crapes") I made crepes with a fluffy strawberry filling and cut-up fresh strawberries for dinner. It was so, SO good! I'm not very good at getting the crepes thin so I ate two and was totally stuffed. But hopefully with practice I will add crepes to my list of breakfast foods to make for any meal!

You can wipe up your drool now!

Lots of New Posts!

I updated my blog with 4 new posts full of fun and quite a few pictures! Check them all out, I know you want to!

More Pregnancy News!

For Christmas this year Chris and I were a little bit crafty in our approach to gifts to our families. We had artfully deceived our families into thinking we weren't able to find out the sex of the baby until the middle of January. But my doctor was willing to give gender-predicting a try so we could surprise our families for the holidays. Well, we were definitely successful in our efforts and were eager to package our results and gift them to family for Christmas! So I'm sure you're thinking "enough already, just tell us"! We are proud to announce that our upcoming bundle of joy is a.............BOY!

Can you tell? This is a shot from underneath, between the legs!

Yes, you read right folks, a boy! His name is going to be William Christopher Hansen...good, strong name, huh?! Chris and I couldn't be more excited and I couldn't feel anymore relief (even though it would be because of Chris if the baby was/wasn't a boy!)! Chris had imagined a boy all along and said he just couldn't see us having a baby girl first. Maybe one day, but for now we adore our little boy! We've even bought a few outfits for him to wear already! It's so crazy how fast time is going now that the new year is here and we know what we're having!

I totally slacked in keeping up with belly pictures with the Christmas season and traveling all over but I did manage to get one at 19 weeks and 3 days. I feel huge and I look just awful all the time but things will get back to normal after the baby comes, right? Right?! Chris is thrilled at the prospect of a big, strong, football player so at least he has a positive outlook! Hopefully I'll do better at posting more frequent belly pictures as well as all of the things I make for our little guy with my new sewing machine!

19 weeks and 3 days

New Year's Eve 2011!

After being in Moab for Christmas, there was no way we were going to pass up seeing Jenny, David and their 3 kids (Jenny is Chris's sister). So we headed up to Provo on Thursday. We started things off on Friday with hitting up Tucanos, a Brazilian restaurant, in celebration of Chris's birthday. It is an all-you-can-eat meat fest and we absolutely LOVED it! While there, we made sure the staff knew it was Chris's birthday and they "let" him hold a maraca while they sang to him in Portuguese! Doesn't he look thrilled?! Haha!

Chris's 27th Birthday at Tucanos

For New Year's Eve we went with the family to Provo Towne Mall for "First Night". It was tons of fun! The kids rode the trampoline bungee, danced in a Wii contest, had balloon animals and swords made for them, got their faces painted, climbed through blow-up tent obstacles, made their own pixie stix candy, watched fireworks, and did all sorts of other fun things that I can't remember at this moment! Of course, Chris and I joined in the festivities too! If you are ever in the Provo/Orem area for New Year's Eve, I highly recommend going to first night at the Provo Towne Mall! We also ate at Panda Express while in the mall 'cause ya know, our life evolves around food! Once we got home, we rang in the New Year with some sparkling cider, watched the ball drop in Times Square, and called it an awesome, eventful night!

A butterfly...the balloon animal Jenny had made for Chris!

Chris and I on New Year's Eve

The wonderful, simple design I asked the painting lady to put on my face! She did awesome, even though I had one black eyebrow for a day!

Sunday was also an eventful day...we tested out Jenny's new deep fryer! And let me tell you we had a ball with that thing! So much so, that our first trip when we got back to Ohio was to go find ourselves a deep fryer. We made deep fried twinkies, mozzarella sticks, Chris tried to deep fry a nut cluster (bad idea unless it's frozen...), and ended with delicious deep fried chicken wings topped with Frank's Red Hot sauce! Oh, and we threw in some steamed broccoli for good measure :)

All-in-all we had a blast at the Hoover household (as usual) and appreciate their hospitality and patience in putting up with us! We can't wait to see their family again! Possibly in December?

Christmas 2011!

I have to apologize up front: we didn't take our camera so we hardly have any "people" pictures...sorry!

This year for Christmas my WHOLE family went to Moab, Utah! We've never had everyone together on Christmas and it was so much fun! Chris and I flew out to Utah and of course had a delay (what's new?). Anyways, the festivities began right off the bat with my sisters and mom greeting me at the airport telling me how "big" I was, but assurred me it was a cute pregnant belly! We had a traditional Christmas Eve dinner (we always do a big Christmas Eve dinner, not a big Christmas Day dinner), sang "Silent Night" in honor of my Grandpa Garrett, opened presents from friends and presents required for Christmas Day, and finished off the night with our family tradition of poker (Mom won and Natalie was runner-up!).

Christmas Day began bright and early since church was at 9am. We opened presents from Santa and looked in our stockings. We enjoyed a wonderful Christmas program and then zipped on home so we could finish opening presents. Chris and I were very blessed this year and are excitedly using our Christmas gifts!

Garrett Family picture Christmas 2011...What a good lookin' bunch!

My BIL Corey was in Moab for the first time and wanted to see as much as possible so Monday was an all-day hiking day. He had his heart set on hiking up to Delicate Arch but Krystle (his wife) warned him it was no jaunt in the park. Corey was determined so most of us piled into the van with our water bottles and granola bars (which were definitely NOT enough to eat) and made our way to Delicate Arch. I opted for the upper view point--a 1 mile round-trip hike--while Corey, Chris, David, Dad, Gordon, Natalie, and Rachel took the 3 mile round-trip hike up to the arch. After returning, Corey said he would never hike to Delicate Arch again. I'm sure "I told you so" was in order from Krystle :)

Nicole, Natalie, and Rachel at Balanced Rock in Arches National Park

Delicate Arch #1 (aka "cowboy chaps")

Delicate Arch #2

Delicate Arch #3

Chris liked this rock formation and wanted Rachel out of the picture...Rachel thought that was rude!

However, our day was not over. Dead Horse Point in Canyonlands National Park wasn't too far up the road from Delicate Arch in Arches National Park so we made our way there next. I've only been to Dead Horse Point once and Chris had never been so it was good that we went. It is a beautiful, expansive canyon from which you can see the Colorado River and just glimpse a mountain peak in Colorado. We had lots of fun and were grateful that Corey was so persistent in making us go!

Dead Horse Point #1

Dead Horse Point #2

Dead Horse Point #3

Nicole at Dead Horse Point

This was a cool shot that Chris got...if you look, you can see the Colorado River just behind and below the rays of the sun

Isn't it beautiful? My family lives there!

The rest of the break in Moab was spent telling scary stories (thanks Annabelle), playing Just Dance 3, lots and LOTS of Modern Warfare 3, some Super Mario Brothers, eating, playing with Jude, watching Rylie cry and sometimes playing with her :), eating, exploring, playing air soft (to see an awesome video go here), laughing, celebrating Chris's 27th birthday with dinner and ice cream :), teasing and enjoying each other's company.

I stole this from my sister Krystle (air soft war pic)

I stole this too from my sister Krystle (another air soft war pic)

I've probably left out so many details and experiences but it really was tons of fun and I can't wait until we can all get together again!

THE Ohio State Game!

At the end of October Chris took a monumental step in his life: he attended an Ohio State football game at the horseshoe (the Ohio State stadium)! Some tickets came available on short notice and Chris's brother Mat was kind enough to give them to Chris and his other brother Mike. Chris had this grand idea that we would go to his parents about 1.5 hours away and then Chris would drive with Mike to the game and then come back to his parents to pick me up and then we would drive home. I should've thought this over before I agreed to it because that was a LOT of unnecessary driving, plus the game was a night game and Chris and I got home super late and had church at 9:30 the next morning. Yeah, bad idea. But I can blame it on being pregnant, right?

Anyways, Chris had a blast, to say the least! He and Mike got to the game early and climbed all the way to the top of the stadium and then back down to their seats. Chris said his depth perception at the top was way off and it made him dizzy. He also said that climbing all of those stairs made his legs burn :) He and Mike came back very hoarse and utterly worn out from all of the rooting and yelling they had done!

I watched the game at Mat's house and the whole time Mat was rooting for Wisconsin to blow-out Ohio State because he was bummed that he wasn't able to be there. Well, Ohio State won and it was an exciting game! Sorry Mat! But Chris really appreciated the opportunity and couldn't stop talking about it to anyone and everyone for days on end. I love seeing Chris get so excited about something! I can honestly say it was one of Chris's favorite experiences, thus far!

Mike at the game (good seats, huh?)

Chris at the game

A view from the top of the stadium

Prego Picture

So I've been feeling a little better the last couple of weeks and I am SOOOO grateful to be passing that phase! I can't imagine the women who are sick the whole pregnancy; it would be just awful! Anyways, here is a picture of me at 12 weeks. I feel like I'm so much bigger than I'm supposed to be but the doctor said I'm fine so I guess I'm fine. I'm just a little afraid of what I'm going to look like at 35+ weeks if I keep going at this rate!