The Knowlton Family

Sick Days

2012-02-01T14:35:00.000-06:00

This past week little Lincoln got sick for the first time. Breaks my heart! Just look at that sad little cuddly!

Lincoln is usually happily active all day long. He doesn't like to sit still - he has to be bouncing or wiggling or standing or doing SOMETHING. It has been a big change to have a limp little baby sit on my lap. He hasn't had a fever, just a very stuffy nose and a cough, so I haven't had to worry too much or take him to Convenient Care. The thing Aaron and I can't get over is how HAPPY he is! He is still smiling a lot and babbling more than usual. I don't think this baby has a cranky bone in his body. I can't imagine being a baby and being sick and not knowing what was going on or at least understanding that I would get better soon. Makes me sheepish to say I've been sick, too, and have probably complained more than he has. He has been sleeping less than usual and all I want to do is sleep the sick away! I just hope we get better at the same time so I'm not a sick Momma trying to handle a healthy, active baby all day. We went on a 50 minute walk yesterday - the weather was just too nice, I couldn't let it pass us by - and we were both out for the rest of the afternoon!

We did a grocery shopping trip to get ingredients for soup for dinner and I plan on having a relaxing rest of the day. It isn't quite the same when you're the mom and you have to make your own soup when you're sick! Four hours and counting until Aaron gets home to watch after his sick loves :).

Internet People, Family, & Footy Pajamas

2012-01-28T13:08:00.000-06:00

Hello, blogging world! I am having one of those months where every time I start to blog I realize everything I want to share I've already shared on Facebook. I also feel like I have no good anecdotes at parties because every time I start a story the person I'm talking to says "Yeah, I saw the pictures of when you did that!" or "I read your status about that!" Punchlines are always ruined. Perhaps to be an interesting in-person person, you need to be a boring online person. And it's pretty obvious I don't like to be a boring online person. :)

It's amazing to me how not bored I am being a stay at home mom. When the day has definite segments of baby being awake and napping, it becomes very clear what needs to be and can be done when. Baby's awake! Read books, sing songs, tummy time, Johnny Jump time, run errands, nurse, repeat. Baby's asleep! Shower, cook, bake, internet, clean, craft, repeat. Since Lincoln has been taking two substantial naps in his crib a day, my life has become much more structured

Luckily for me, Lincoln loves photo shoots. I've trained him well from day one. He is happiest in his jumper or laying on a blanket when I'm acting like the paparazzi. He especially loves the flash! He is very video camera shy, though. He just stares at it, suddenly silent. I have over 40 videos of him but I can never seem to catch eventful moments! He's not going to be one of those babies who gets his first steps or first words on tape.

Yesterday I went on a special outing with my niece Alyssa. We went to the library and she picked out some books for her, for Lincoln, and one for Aaron. We went to McDonalds on the way home for some ice cream. I sure love those girls. Last night I showed Aaron some videos I have on my computer of Alyssa and me when she was just a baby and it made me really appreciate my family. As a child your family is your entire world, then somewhere in middle school or high school your social network, boys, activities, a million things seem to be more important, and in college you start a life for yourself. I am definitely at the stage in life where family is number one again, and they are never going to move from that spot. It's hard to imagine how I could ever put anything above family. It was my half birthday on Thursday and my mom made me dinner and treats. That's love!

I need to take advantage of Lincoln's nap and finally get around to taking a shower. Lincoln is coming down with a cold I think so I am keeping him at home and comfortable today to try and help stop it before it really starts. If I weren't chaperoning the youth dance tonight, I would join him in footy pajamas all day! (Because yes, I am currently in my red penguin footy pajamas).

Three Months!

2012-01-09T16:28:00.000-06:00

This past weekend Lincoln turned three months old! It has been an amazing three months getting to know this little guy. Being a mother is such a natural thing, I feel like I am remembering how to care for this little one rather than learning how. I love being able to be the one and only at something. I am Lincoln's one and only mother, and he sure rewards me in love.

At three months...

Lincoln is set on sleeping on his stomach despite all my efforts. Even swaddled, he immediately rolls (more like flips) onto his stomach!
He laughs really adorably.
He weighs in at a little under twelve pounds - he is about the fiftieth percentile in all of his measurements.
A long legged Tiger named Napoleon is his favorite toy.
He naps from 11:30 am - 2:00 pm and from 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm. He sleeps eleven hours at night but wakes up after eight hours to be fed before going back to sleep.
He loves to hold onto Momma's hair, collar, and neck as if his life depended on it! Sometimes Momma's life depends on him letting go!
His favorite songs are Wheels on the Bus, Here Comes the Sun, and anything by Justin Bieber. If I play music and he isn't paying attention then start playing Bieber, he starts smiling as soon as it starts!
Car rides are his least favorite things on this earth.
He can do a wonderful backbend and if he doesn't want to be put in the car seat, good luck! He is strong to wrestle with already! It just makes me laugh most of the time how eleven pounds can outsmart and outtwist me.
Lincoln is awesome at photoshoots! If I pull out the camera he starts smiling. He's video camera shy, though.
He loves to talk! He even talks to Napoleon when I am in the shower.
Like most babies, he loves baths.
Dad is his favorite person to spit up on. I swear he keeps an emergency stash for when Dad holds him!

We love you, Mr. Lincoln!

Ring in the New Year!

2012-01-05T16:40:00.000-06:00

Woohoo!

I'd post a sound bite of me yelling that to start this post if I knew how. Lucky for you, I don't.

Thought I'd start out with this picture because it makes me laugh. This boy is a TROOPER. 160 picture photo-shoot? He can handle it! And I love that he is finally old enough to be preppy.

Aaron and I went to San Diego to spend Christmas with his family, and it was wonderful. Everyone was able to come, even Kimberly's family flew in from Norway! We went to the beach, the San Diego Zoo, the Mormon Batallion Center, and delicious restaurants. We went on a twelve mile bike ride on Coronado, Aaron's parents rented a bounce house for a day, and all the girls (& Lincoln) had a girls' day and got pedicures and lunch. It was sunny and in the seventies every day. Does it get any better than that!? Aaron had to be back in the lab on the twenty-eighth and Lincoln and I stayed until the thirty-first. Consequently we were apart on our two year anniversary and I had to fly home with Little Mister alone, but it was very worth it to have the extra time with my in-laws. I feel so lucky to have been blessed with TWO wonderful families.

The whole family

Grandparents and six grandkids

The beach on Christmas Eve. Perfect!

San Diego zoo! Linc isn't impressed :)

Bounce house!

Ready to set off on the bike ride. Kimberly was Lincoln's tour guide!

Pedicure day!

When everyone in San Diego was saying their goodbyes to Lincoln I almost cried. Just thinking about saying goodbye to this little guy was more than I could handle! I am so glad I get to be with this little guy all the time.

Back in Illinois the family is reunited and things are warmer than expected. Still cold enough to find it necessary to dress my baby like a bear cub, but it's a very mild winter. The tree is out of the house, front room redecorated, kitchen organized, errands run, dinner in the crockpot, baby bathed and napping in his crib... and I'm relaxing :). I am really loving 2012!

Getting ready for Christmas

2011-12-19T12:45:00.000-06:00

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I am starting to feel like a Christmas homemaker for the first time! I sewed stockings for the family, we have a wreath on the door, and a big real tree! My mom got us a Christmas tablecloth that I'm loving, too. Someday I'll have signs that say JOY and NOEL, but we're taking baby steps :).

Last week my Mom and I took Lincoln and my three nieces to see Santa at the mall. It was too cute - this is Christmas! We grew up doing cousin Santa pictures in Ohio, so I'm glad we're carrying on the tradition. Baby's first Christmas is finally here.

Thursday we're off to San Diego to spend Christmas with Aaron's family. We can't wait! Fun, love, and warm weather. It's going to be a great Christmas and I can't wait for Lincoln to meet everyone. I'm worried about the plane ride - I've tried five brands of pacifiers on this little one and no luck. Hopefully everyone on the flight will be filled with Christmas Spirit!

Having an infant son on Christmas is a very emotional thing for me. Jesus was a sweet newborn boy born in a stable. Mary went through labor, heard her baby cry for the first time, wrapped him up and held him tight. She cried looking at her sweet little bundle and kissed his forehead. Baby Jesus did little stretches, startled in his sleep, and held onto Joseph's finger. Jesus was a real newborn baby. He was also the Son of God and our king. He was born our Savior, destined to perform miracles. But for awhile, he was a newborn baby boy and Mary held him and cherished him just as literally as I hold Lincoln. That is a new realization for me this Christmas.

Talking with Lincoln

2011-12-07T15:27:00.000-06:00

Here's a video of a normal day with Lincoln. Not eventful, but it gives a good taste of what Lincoln is like at two months!

Two Months!

2011-12-06T23:44:00.000-06:00

Who has two thumbs and is two months old today?

THIS GUY!

Our little Lincoln is growing strong and healthy! He had his two month peds appointment today and had to get two shots, poor little thing. I love how big the bandaids look on his little legs! He's in about the fiftieth percentile for everything.

Weight - 11 lb. 6 oz.
Length - 23 in.
Head Circumference - 15.5 in

He is giving big smiles, sleeping through the night, babbling, rolling stomach to back, 90% rolling back to stomach, hates meetings, and loves being bounced. We adore our little boy!

Bieber Baby

2011-12-01T12:32:00.000-06:00

When I say my baby loves Bieber, I mean there is Bieber Fever deep within him. I put on "Baby" this morning and he just started dancing! Luckily I had my phone next to me to record a little bit.

In other news...

This little guy is SMILING! It is so exciting. He smiles most right when he wakes up in the morning and after naps, and when Aaron comes home (... and when listening to Justin Bieber). It just melts my heart when I get a bit toothless smile. This mother thing sure is rewarding!

Thanksgiving week was a whole lot of fun! My best friend Christina and her husband Andrew came from Delaware to visit and meet Lincoln and it was wonderful! Bowling, eating out, shopping, walks, movies, and lots of chatting. It was so nice to have them here - it's been hard going from living with Christy for 4 years and seeing her every day to just seeing each other every six months! This visit was special because now we're both married, I have a baby and she's pregnant! I feel like we've been through a lot of stages of life together.

We went swimming in their hotel with them and it was Little Mister's first time swimming! He loved the water and kicked around so alert the whole time. I can't wait for him to get to go swimming again. Our video is very foggy from the humidity - it was 83 degrees in there!

My sister Natalie and her husband Bryan drove down from Minneapolis for Thanksgiving, too! It was so nice having almost the whole family together, especially since we are going to our spouse's homes for Christmas this year. We played a few games, went on a nature walk, went out to Kamikura, and started Christmas with watching Elf and drinking hot chocolate. I love this season!

Baby Quirks

2011-11-11T13:04:00.001-06:00

We are already getting tastes of Lincoln's personality through some little things that he does. It is so fun the older he gets the funnier he is! (That is the ONLY good thing about him getting older and bigger! I want to keep my newborn forever!)

*He likes Justin Beiber Christmas better than his lullabies. You go, boy!

*He likes to be a squeaky mouse at night and squeaks in his sleep

*He snores, just like his dad. Is that possible as a baby?

*He GRUNTS all the time when he's trying to do things that require moving

*When he rolls over he always alternates sides

*He has such an adorable pouty sad face - I call it "saddest man in the world" and it gets me every time. I am going to be so manipulable!

*He loves to dance with me

*When he sleeps he puts one hand open on his face and the other in a fist

*He loves baths but hates wash cloths

*He loves his car seat but only when it's not in the car

*He only likes two verses of songs - if I try to sing more or make up extra verses at the end he gets mad

*He sweats when wearing just a long sleeve shirt in 40 degree weather. Jackets are a no-go.

*He likes to carry his burp cloth around with him in his hand

Our silly Little Mister :)

Baby's First Month

2011-11-07T14:18:00.001-06:00

It's hard to blog when most of your day is spent holding a precious newborn, but I can't go any longer without sharing details of my sweet little one!

Lincoln Kirk Knowlton was born October 6, 2011 at 12:17 pm. He weighed 8 lbs 3 oz and was 21 inches long. He has lots of light hair that is really long in the back and oh-so-soft. The first few weeks of his life he had the chubbiest cheeks I have ever seen! I miss them. Everyone says he looks like Aaron but I'm not sure yet if he really does or if it's just because he looks so BOY! Aaron's dad said if we put him in a dress and a hair bow people still wouldn't think he's a girl, they would just wonder why we'd dress a boy that way. I think he has Aaron's nose and ears and my lips and toes. The eyes are still undecided.

He sleeps very well and has since he was three days old. He can go 5 hours straight at night so I've been getting enough sleep, just not consecutively. He is also a STRONG boy! He could hold his head up the day he was born and has rolled over from tummy to back twice! He is very expressive with his hands and uses them a lot. My visiting teachee thinks he will be a pianist :).

Aaron is a great dad and loves the time he has at home with us but thinks it's never enough. I gave Lincoln and I nicknames pretty early on and use them more than our real names! We are Little Mister & Miss Mama :). I have enjoyed many special moments with him where I can really feel the spirit and just know he is a sweet blessing from God. He really makes our family feel more complete. I feel so lucky to have caring for him be my full time job, even though it is the most difficult and exhausting job I've ever had!

Lincoln has been so lucky to have special time with all of his grandparents. My parents live in town and love seeing him several days a week. Aaron's mom flew out for a week just after he was born and we really appreciated the help she gave us and the cuddles she gave him! Aaron's dad was just here this weekend for Lincoln's baby blessing.

Baby's blessing was such a special day! He was exactly a month old and sweet as could be. He was wrapped in a blanket Aaron's sister Kimberly gave him that she got when in Bethlehem. He didn't make a peep during the blessing but he was very alert and playful. Aaron's blessing was very sweet - I wrote most of it down to keep in his baby book. I cried! He got fussy right after the blessing and I had to feed him, but he fell asleep after that and Aaron's dad held him for the rest of church.

Today we are celebrating his second month of life by being purposely lazy and cuddling lots. I love my sweet little boy!

2011-09-30T16:20:00.002-05:00

My blog's baby counter widget doesn't say 40 weeks today, it says "Congratulations!" and shows a baby. How rude.

Garage Sales

2011-09-26T09:33:00.000-05:00

(I always want to say that I went "garage sale-ing" but that sounds like "garage sailing" which leaves an odd image in my head.)

Mahomet had their city-wide garage sale this past weekend, and it was phenomenal! I scouted everything out on Craigslist and found about five houses that specifically said they had newborn boy clothes, so I had a route all ready! I was mainly looking for polo-style onesies so he will have something a bit dressy but still comfy to wear to church those first few months. I bought:

5 polo-style onesies

4 onesies

3 sleepers

2 pairs of socks

1 hat

3 pairs of pants

1 pair of overalls

1 white shirt, vest, and pin-stripe pant set for next year

2 nursing covers

1 nursing nightgown

It was definitely two hours well spent. It all ended up costing $9.50. A little laundry, and all baby's clothes will be ready for him :). Can't wait for that first little Sunday outfit!

The Final Countdown

2011-09-21T09:20:00.000-05:00

Here we are, September 21, 2011. Sounds like a lovely day for a birthday, don't you think? I have no evidence that anything is going to happen today, but here's to wishful thinking.

Every night around 7:00 pm (just late enough that even if labor started, he would probably be born the next day) I start thinking about the next day's date, what I have on my schedule that I would miss, and just what it would be like to have a baby the next day. It makes every day seem like a big disappointment, but I can't stop my mind from going there.

I really like the sound of the twenty-first. That would be a fun golden birthday.

The twenty-second is the last day of summer this year. That is quaint.

The twenty-third is the first day of fall this year. I would love to greet fall with a new baby.

I think I have completely dropped, and he is definitely head down and ready. Last Tuesday morning I woke up to a slightly lower baby, and this Monday the difference was huge. I felt like I had a completely different body. Other than that, no signs yet. I have a contraction here and there, but never two in a row even. I have a doctor's appointment today at 11:20 am, so we'll see if I am dilated at all. That would be blessed news!

I started walking just over a week ago, and it has made a big difference. I walk between 30 minutes and an hour every evening and I feel like I have built more flexibility and endurance already. I think him dropping was the direct result of a big walk, and I feel like I am prepping myself for labor. I enjoy my time walking with Aaron, or having some time with the baby mix on my iPod.

The end is a lot harder than I expected. I just feel so puffy and overweight and huge. And let's not talk about the hormones. I'm a blubbering mess. I am so thankful that has only been the last two weeks - I know some women deal with hormones like that the whole pregnancy and I can't imagine how. I dropped my crock pot and broke it and SOBBED for twenty minutes. For my emotional state and Aaron's sanity, this baby needs to come.

I'm trying to really savor these few weeks because they are life changing. This is the last time ever I won't be a mother. This is the only time I will ever be pregnant with Lincoln. These are my last days with just Aaron. Soon my wondering and waiting will all be over...

Baby Guesses

2011-09-14T18:37:00.000-05:00

Several months ago before we knew baby's gender we did a "baby pool" online. Here is everyone that is in the running that guessed boy :). If you want to make a guess make it here or on Facebook!

Emily Isenbarger - Sept 22 - 2:53pm - 7 lb 7 oz - 19 in

Kalina Reger - Sept 23 - 10:00am - 7 lb 13 oz - 23 in

Briana Winegardner - Sept 24 - 3:10am - 7 lb 8 oz - 22 in

Bruce Williams - Sept 27 - 11:11am - 7 lb 11 oz - 21 in

Michelle Adeoye - Sept 27 - 6:00pm - 8 lb 1 oz - 19 in

Tiffany Peterson - Sept 28 - 3:17am - 8 lb 3 oz - 20 in

Jessica Kingsford - Sept 28 - 7:00am - 8 lb 2 oz - 19 in

Alyssa Martin - Sept 30 - 12:00am - 7 lb 8 oz - 23 in

Lisa Leavitt - Sept 30 - 7:30am - 7 lb 10 oz - 20 in

Keith Harris - Sept 30 - 8:00am - 7 lb 0 oz - 20 in

Aaron Knowlton - Oct 1 - 8:00pm - 7 lb 8 oz - 19 in

Lindsey Price - Oct 2 - 5:35am - 7 lb 9 oz - 21 in

Kimberly Oldham - Oct 3 - 8:42am - 8 lb 2 oz - 21 in

Valerie Robbins - Oct 3 - 10:57pm - 7 lb 13 oz - 20 in

Barb England - Oct 4 - 6:20am - 7 lb 0 oz - 20 in

Christy Zimmerman - Oct 5 - 6:36am - 8 lb 5 oz - 21 in

Bibs!

2011-09-04T15:21:00.000-05:00

One of my recent projects has been sewing bibs. SO FUN! I've made eight for Lincoln and seven for friends so far. Here are all of the ones I have ready for my little boy. :) It's a great quick, simple project.

September!

2011-09-01T15:54:00.000-05:00

(I am still trying to convince myself that it's okay to write a blog post even when there is no picture to go with it...)

September has been very anticipated in the Knowlton household! First, BYU football starts this Saturday. It's always a big adjustment for me when football season comes. Suddenly Aaron's time and mental energy starts getting sucked up! I don't think I've ever had a seasonal hobby (living in Illinois it's not like there are winter or summer activities to do) so my life is pretty constant year round. I'm getting used to it. We are going to get to watch all of the games with some of our best friends, so it is going to be a great season. I am making BYU mint brownies for the game and I can't wait to eat them with friends!!

I saw the first game on my calendar yesterday and thought, "Is Lincoln's BYU hoodie clean? I need to make sure I have his stuff ready for the game." I guess I forgot he isn't born yet and he won't be coming to this one. There is a BYU game on my due date, and a discussion has been had about football in the hospital :).

My replacement starts at work on Wednesday, 9/7, which is actually my next day of work (thank you, Labor Day!). I'm supposed to do two weeks of training, then he's basically going to take over the job and I'll be there as a resource for the next two doing who knows what until baby comes! I am counting down to leaving like work like it's for winter break or something... I wonder if it's going to hit me before I leave that this is FOR GOOD! I probably won't get another job for YEARS. That's pretty wonderful and foreign! I am so thankful that I have the opportunity to stay home with my little boy.

Baby is due four weeks from tomorrow! This month! (Please don't wait until October, baby!) I think it finally started to get hard last week. I feel really heavy now. My stomach isn't sticking out much more than before, but suddenly it is full of lead! I don't feel like I am growing a baby inside of me anymore, but more like a full grown baby is choosing to live inside of me. I really can't complain - I have loved being pregnant and all the wonderful things that come with it and my discomfort has been very minimal and couldn't be called anything more than "discomfort." How lucky is that?

Our hospital bags are packed and in the car, and the "finishing touches" on the nursery have all been done! My nesting has been so out of control once I finished most of the baby things I moved on to organizing linen closets and bookshelves and things like that. I would classify myself as a project queen these days. Get a project in my head, and it is done, and thoroughly, within 24 hours! People keep asking what I'm going to do these last weeks since everything is already done and Aaron just laughs and tells them "Oh, she'll think of something." Right now my plans are to sew more bibs (I'm obsessed) and start some knitting projects. And maybe rest. I've started to enjoy resting again this past week. In my resting I've discovered "17 Kids & Counting" on Netflix and I'm plowing through it pretty quickly. AWESOME!

Now that football season is here, the only big thing on the Knowlton radar before baby comes is a presentation Aaron has to do at work in a week and a half. I'm going to try to plan labor to get him out of it, but he should probably prepare something just in case :).

Love you all!

Where does tithing come from? (Geographically)

2011-08-24T11:26:00.007-05:00

I have always been interested in how the church collects and uses its money. There is very little information out there and since the church is a non-profit, the government does not require it to release all of its earnings to the public. So, I decided to do a little bit of sleuthing on my own.

Step 1) Determine the active membership in each country. I found this blog post that lists estimated member activity rates in each country. and also, I was able to get the reported membership in 2009 by the church (# of members * Activity Rate=# of active members)

Using this information, I noticed that the world activity rate average is about 30%. There is a 40% activity rate in the US and significantly lower for the rest of the world. These numbers are consistent with other estimates determined through census data and Pew research surveys. So in 2009, total membership was 13.8 million, but only 4.2 million active members.

Step 2) Now that I had the estimated active membership in each country, I looked at the GDP per capita in each country to determine how much Tithing was paid. (Tithing = Active membership * GDP per capita * 10%)

This equation makes two big assumptions: 1) All active members pay a full tithe (this is probably not true, I would guess it may be more like 50% of "active" members actually pay tithing) and 2) The LDS community is a representative sample of a nations GDP (In the US, I feel that this is probably a pretty close approximation. We have the super rich; Stephanie Meyer, Mitt Romney, the Huntsmans, Eric Weddle who just signed a $50 million contract with the Chargers, etc... and we have members who are very poor and trying to just get by. I would say an average LDS male earns more than the national average, but once you factor in additional kids and a wife that stays at home or works part time, then we are pretty close to the national GDP.

Using all of this information, I calculated that if all active members paid Tithing, the LDS church would collect $13.6 Billion dollars a year in tithing and that $11.5 Billion (84.5%) would come from the United States.

Other estimates based on what each ward in the US collects in Tithing each year puts the estimate around $5 Billion to $8 Billion. This is based off figures from ward clerks who reported how much tithing their wards collected.
US Ward in a poor neighborhood or a student ward($250,000/year)
US Ward in a average neighborhood ($500,000/year)
US Ward in a affluent neighborhood ($1,000,000/year).

11,401 Wards * $500,000 + 2,073 Branches * $200,000 = 5.7 Billion from wards + 0.4 Billion from Branches = $6.1 Billion a year in the US which is 53% of the theoretical amount if 100% of active members paid Tithing. This seems like a pretty reasonable approximation.

So if we assume that the ratio of active members who pay tithing is constant across the globe, the Church brings in approximately $7.2 Billion a year worldwide from Tithing.

So lets take a look at some of the data.
Pie Charts

And here is a bar graph comparing the top 20 countries by membership

Anyway, I thought all of this was very interesting. It shows that even though we have more members outside of the US than inside the US, there are still more active members in the US than the rest of the world combined. Even more surprising than that, was that 85% of the church's funds likely originate from the US. It's important to remember that the US does have a quarter of the worlds GDP, so this is not surprising that a church based out of the US to have a profile similar to this one.

So, I have read a number of comments on articles and blog posts that talk about how the LDS church is a giant corporation and it just wants your money. These arguments make me a little irritated for a few reasons, 1) The general authorities don't have anything to gain if you pay your Tithing or not, and 2) They rarely address the issue of Tithing, maybe one talk a conference will deal with this issue, they seem a lot more concerned about our behavior and salvation, and 3) There are a lot of places the church could earn money that it doesn't. They could charge for weddings or tickets to conference or they would advertise on their website or they would charge for their family search website. Clearly, they do not seem to be very concerned about the finances of the church. There is a simple way to test this hypothesis. People spend their money where their heart is. We can test whether the church's spending patterns reflect where the tithing is originating from or whether they reflect where active members are. If they care about money they would reinvest all of their money in the areas that are earning the most, if they care about saving souls, their spending patterns will reflect the locations of active members. Temples are a large expense for the church and one of the things that Tithing is used for, by looking at the distribution of temples around the world, we can see where the heart of the church lies.

Membership vs. Tithing vs. Temples

As you can see, the temples track much more closely with the active membership than they do with the tithing money. Ok, Europe and Oceania are a little favored by the church :) but I'm guessing that is a result of the fragmented nature of those two regions. The church wants to make sure each country feels like they have a temple and that they have equal access to all of the blessings. Africa is slightly underrepresented only because the church is relatively new there, I imagine that over the next decade, many of the new temple announcements will be in Africa as its church membership expands rapidly.

I'm happy to be a member of a church that is such a wise steward of funds. I am reminded of the Parable of the Talents. I am fine trusting that the church leadership is using its funds wisely and carefully, always remembering the widow's mite (Democratic Republic of Congo 23,615 members, GDP- $186. That's $1.50 a month per member) Their faith strengthens mine and I am glad that my Tithing money can subsidize theirs so they too can experience all of the blessings of full membership in the church.

I know this is only a snapshot of the churches funds, there are a number of other aspects here that were not considered. The church owns a number of businesses, more land than McDonalds, and other donations like fast offerings, the perpetual education fund and missionary funds, but I guess it does give an idea of the scale of the offerings that the church operates with. I'm sure my $7.2 Billion estimate is correct to at least an order of magnitude, but I would be shocked if it were outside of the range of $3 Billion to $20 Billion a year.

Showered With Love

2011-08-10T14:29:00.004-05:00

Last Saturday my sister Holly and my mom threw me an amazing baby shower! My mom flew my sister Jessica in from Utah as a surprise, and my sister Natalie drove down from Minnesota, so all four of us were together! I also had my two cousins and my aunt from Ohio, and my childhood friend from Wisconsin drive in. I felt SO spoiled. Plus all my friends from church and high school... it was perfect.

We held the shower in a conference room we rent out at my work and it was a great location Three GRACIOUS friends and I decorated the room the day before so the morning of the shower wasn't too hectic for me. We had crockpot beef sandwiches, a veggie tray, fruit with a chocolate fountain, and a cake my mom made in the shape of a baby buggy. During the shower we decorated onesies with all sorts of craft supplies and just chatted - it was really low key. I have some ADORABLE onesies now that little Lincoln is going to love :).

Sunday we got to spend the whole day together as a family, then Jessica left Monday morning and Natalie left Tuesday afternoon. It was a really great, busy weekend. As much as I would like to take it easy this week, there is more excitement ahead. I leave tomorrow morning for Utah to go to Alyssa Durant's wedding! She is getting married in the Salt Lake Temple on Friday and I get to be a bridesmaid. I'm really excited to be there for her special day. Just pray for me that I don't go into labor in Utah without Aaron. I do have seven weeks left... but only seven weeks!!!

I Wanna Have Your Babies

2011-08-02T20:25:00.000-05:00

Get serious like crazy... I wanna have your babies - see 'em springing up like daisies!

Classic. This is fun to sing with a baby in your belly :).

Have you SEEN ME lately?

2011-07-30T14:07:00.000-05:00

It's amazing what a difference 22 weeks can make... I can't even remember looking like that!

The Monkey is Born!

2011-07-21T15:41:00.000-05:00

Okay guys, remember that sock monkey kit I bought months ago? Well, the monkey has finally come to life! I made him last night and it was so fun. More work than I anticipated, probably, but I really like how he turned out. While I know that even babies have strong opinions, I sure hope this monkey will be my baby's favorite stuffed animal and that he will be in the family for awhile! I have this vision in my head of making a sock monkey (or sock rabbit or some other version) for each of my kids, and each of them in a different color. Love!

Here I am working on him...

Finished product! I added the applique heart (thanks for the idea, Ali!) and I just love it.

I put his initials on the bum :).

I'm still working on entering the domestic world, so every finished project is a step!

Baby update

2011-07-18T09:31:00.001-05:00

It has been my aspiration to have the best documented pregnancy ever. So far, I think I'm putting up a good fight :).

I am nearly 30 weeks along (due September 30) now, which is kind of surreal. Almost 7 months pregnant! I feel like my belly is right on track - I think I look just about how pregnant I am,. Even though my belly isn't too cumbersome, I feel like I got into the "uncomfortable end" this past week. I don't sleep very well anymore, and I have trouble feeling comfortable even sitting down on the couch. Yesterday I almost blacked out at church - I nearly fainted on my way out the door during sacrament meeting to get a drink and lie down. Very embarrassing! Heat is definitely affecting me, and just in time for the week long heat advisory we are having in Champaign! Luckily Aaron graciously lets me have our AC as low as I want at all times, all summer. He takes good care of me. At church he got me ice water and fanned me and held the cold glass to my head and wrists in the hallway during all of Sacrament meeting.

Baby is starting to move so much it is easy for other people to feel him! So far Aaron, my mom, Reese, Alyssa, Michelle, Ali, and Mary have all felt or seen him move. (Piper may have, too, but it's hard to tell with that little one.) It is getting easier to differentiate different body parts. Not that I can say for sure what part I feel every time, but I can usually know if it's a hand, a foot, or something pokier. I told Reese that he gave her a "high-five" yesterday, and she was very excited. I feel on the verge of a belly growth-spurt because it seems like he is nearly out of room and I have a lot more horizontal growth I could do. He will probably grow at the same pace I grow out so he never has more room than he does right now, but something's got to give! He's supposed to be about 2.5 lbs now, and I can't imagine him getting 3 times bigger!!

We have basically decided on the name Lincoln Kirk Knowlton. It makes me happy to think about. A few women have given me their boy hand-me-downs, and I love them! Seeing some cute little sleepers and imagining my little Lincoln wearing them makes it seem so much more real. The nursery is filling up, too, and going in there makes it very evident that a little baby is coming to live with us very soon! We have a crib, changing table, dresser, rocking chair, and some decorations. His drawers have some clothes in them, and he has some newborn diapers on his changing table. We re-arranged our room so there is a space next to my side of the bed for a bassinet, and I'll probably put it there as soon as we get one, a month away from his due date or not!

Aaron and I are taking a child birthing class at Provena (the hospital where we're delivering) and there is only session left! It has been really helpful, because Aaron gets to hear the important medical facts without having to read books with a lot of fluff, and I get to know exactly what to expect at this particular hospital. I am going to take a one-time breastfeeding class and Aaron is going to go to the one-time daddy class next month.

My current obsession is my belly button. I want it to pop SO BADLY. I've thought it was going to be "any day now" for about three weeks and I'm getting impatient! I check it every morning to see it's progress. I want it to pop before we get our maternity pictures taken and we're probably doing that in 3 weeks, so the pressure is on! Aaron thinks I'm really silly and doesn't understand why this is so important to me. I guess I don't understand why, either... I just have this pre-conceived notion that cute pregnant women have outties, and I want one.

I feel like I'm winding down at work. They are going to start advertising for my replacement soon, so I am trying to tie up loose ends and get everything ready to turn over. I have my last day in as September 29, so if I go late I am not going to work past my due date, but of course I am done whenever baby comes. I'm not planning on going back to work after he's born, so it's unsettling to not be sure when my final day is going to be. Working this past year and a half has been good experience for me and I'm really thankful for the employment that I've had, but I sure am ready to be a stay-at-home-mom. I don't have any reservations about it, to tell you the truth... I've been waiting for this since I was a little girl, and I feel prepared for it. Obviously not prepared for being a mother, but prepared for being a homemaker at least! I'm going to have fun with my little guy. I'm so lucky to have two wonderful guys in my life ♥.

**There is beauty all around when there's love at home**

Domestic

2011-07-09T21:41:00.000-05:00

Today was a big day in my domestic life. First, I bought my first hot glue gun. What says "crafty" more than owning a hot glue gun? Second, I made my first wreath! Hobby Lobby is great. Aaron's favorite part are the little bees and I like the bow. I'm so tacky I'll probably leave it up all winter. Or perhaps I'll be ready to make a new wreath by then :).

Right Coast

2011-06-29T12:37:00.000-05:00

Do you know that song "Left Coast Envy" by the Starting Line? I like it. Thus, an account to our trip to the "Right Coast." Aaron and I had an amazing 3 part vacation, and an entire week off of work! Woot woot!

Part 1: The Wedding

The true purpose of the trip was to go to my best friend Christina Nixdorf's wedding! We were roommates all four years at BYU and have been through everything together, and her wedding is something I would NEVER miss. This was my favorite part of the trip. We got to see her hometown in Delaware, meet and spend time with her fiance Andrew Zimmerman, go to the beach, see BETH MILLER!, have a bachelorette party, attend the sealing, and the reception. She is just so fun to spend time with. I think very few brides are as pleasant to be around just before their wedding as Christy was. Spaghetti sauce spilled on my wedding dress two days before the wedding? No big deal! Sunburned at the beach? It'll be fine! DJ saying he's not sure he's supposed to show up? Whatever. Late to the temple? They'll wait! Caterers have no idea when to start serving the food? Meh! It was pretty comical to me how chill she was, although I guess I didn't expect any different.

The wedding day was perfect - weather was great, Christy looked gorgeous, the sealing was really special performed by her grandfather on his birthday, and the reception was kicking! Great food, dance floor, and a very happy couple. Beth and I tried to bust it out like we did at the Wilk all those days, but I don't think my dance moves were quite the same with this big belly! I know my stamina definitely wasn't! We all had a great time.

We love Andrew and the new Zimmerman family! An amazing couple sealed for time and eternity, starting their new life one day at a time :).

Part 2: The Sabins

Aaron's good friends John and Amber Sabin live in Virginia so we stayed with them for two days and had a great time! They have two sweet little girls, and we got to be there for the younger one's first birthday party! It was adorable. It was fun to see Aaron with an old roommate from BYU. They were so similar it was really funny to me... same interests in random things I thought only Aaron could care about! Amber is a really great mother to her girls, and I enjoyed being in their house seeing what her days are like while I prepare to transition into motherhood!

Part 3: Washington DC

Aaron and I spent two pretty full days downtown DC taking in some of the must-sees. Taking the metro into the city was an adventure in and of itself! We happened to be taking the metro in on our first day right before a baseball game, so it was PACKED! My belly ended up scoring me a seat almost every trip at least, which was really helpful. My balance is so good these days as it is, so the moving metro was quite a challenge when standing!

We went to the Natural History Museum and the Air and Space Museum, and saw the Capitol, the Washington Monument, Vietnam Memorial, WWII Memorial, Korean War Memorial, and the Lincoln Monument. Aaron's favorite part was the minerals in the Natural History Museum. They were gorgeous! My favorite part was getting my picture taken in front of the Lincoln Monument with little Lincoln in my belly. We bought a postcard there and I'm going to put the picture and the postcard in his baby book. We also really liked the animals in the Natural History Museum and some of the shuttles in the Air and Space Museum. I guess we really just liked everything! This is the part of the trip that really put me to the test - it was endless hours walking and being on my feet. I definitely slowed our pace, but I think we still got to see everything we would have wanted to otherwise.

The hotel we stayed in was in Alexandria, VA, and there was a shuttle to "Old Town" which was really fun! They had some very nice restaurants, ice cream shops, and docks down by the water. We ate at a fancy Italian restaurant there one of the nights and we got "melone e prosciutto" and Aaron was very happy! Our last day of the trip we were supposed to go into the city, but we both needed a day to recharge before a full day of driving and then back to work! We watched TLC and Discovery Channel in the hotel, ordered pizza, swam in the pool, and went to Old Town for ice-cream. It was an awesome day - exactly what we needed.

Successful vacation! How long until Christmas break??

Smörgåsbord

2011-06-14T09:49:00.000-05:00

Life has been good and pretty routine lately, but I do want to share some highlights. I've been sick with the flu for about a week and a half, and pregnant women with the flu need a silver lining!!

1. Aaron and I got to see my belly move for the first time! It was awesome, like some crazy under the skin ripple effect. Staring at my belly has become my new hobby.

2. I finally saw Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, and it was more wonderful than I could have imagined. Love the music, love the movie, love the Bieber. It cheered me up for quite awhile.

3. I only have 29 days left of work! Working part time and having sick and vacation time is great. I have September 29th as my last day of work since I'm due the 30th, so if this little guy comes at all early it will be even less than 29 days!

4. My belly is really starting to fill out. I can wear a few things this week that have been too big until now, and my belly button is getting really shallow. I think it's going to pop in the next week or so! Strangers are starting to ask me questions about the baby, so it's nice to be obviously pregnant enough that strangers aren't too nervous to mention it.

5. We leave for Christy's wedding and our DC trip tomorrow morning! I can hardly wait. I can't wait to see her and get Aaron all to myself for a whole week. So many things to look forward to :).

Full of Love & Food!

2011-05-31T16:55:00.000-05:00

Aaron and I had a really great Memorial Day weekend! We went to two delicious cook-outs and spent lots of quality time together. It's definitely harder being pregnant in 90 degree humid heat than I expected, but there is one great thing about being pregnant in the summer; Everyone grills out hamburgers! Have I mentioned that burgers have been my main craving food this whole trimester? I can't get enough of them. I am in burger and potato salad heaven.

We had a pretty lazy weekend where we did little housework and lots of out of the house activities. Today I was so overcome with the desire to catch up, I went a little nuts for 4 weeks post-surgery and 5 months pregnant! I just got this June Cleaver image in my head, and wanted to have Aaron come home to the perfect house, perfect dinner, and freshly baked cookies. The house is clean, laundry is almost done, dinner is in the crock pot, cookies in the cookie jar, and I am here lying dead on the couch! Aaron may come home to a tidy house and a good meal, but he will have to enjoy my company over a movie or something that requires little movement :). I think I can remember a time when doing this work wasn't this exhausting, but then again, the house has rarely been in the state of disarray it was this morning!

We are getting closer and closer to our trip to DC for Christina & Andrew's wedding on June 17, and we are so excited! We have a general idea of our itinerary so now we just have to finalize everything. I am ready to pack already... DC here we come!!

Clock work

2011-05-23T23:37:00.001-05:00

This little boy is like clock work! 11:30 am and 11:30 pm he gets going and kicks to his heart's content! He kicks at other times of the day, but it's nothing like his aerobic hours!

We had our 2nd trimester ultrasound today and everything looks great! He was confirmed to be a boy (for some reason I started panicking last night and was sure they were going to say he's a girl after all) and there are no remnants of or issues from the cyst. Happy day!

Sucking his thumb

Face

Those little feet that like to kick so much :)

What I've been up to

2011-05-18T16:17:00.001-05:00

I am back at work this week, and the freedom of bed rest is already missed! I used most of that time to buy and make things for baby, so I wanted to share through pictures what I've been up to these last few weeks!

First, Aaron painted the nursery! I love the way this green turned out. We have to move the fouton and a few small things out of the nursery, but other than that it's ready for baby's things to come on in!

We also ordered this crib set and dresser for the nursery! They are in espresso and got great reviews. I can't wait to see them set up... I think it is going to feel like a baby is coming to stay a lot more once he has a place to sleep and a place for his things!

For the bedding Aaron and I finally decided on this jungle set - "Peek-a-boo Pals" and registered for it at Babyland. The green wall color came from the circle with the "1" in it so I hope it matches well! I love giraffes for babies, and we think there is enough yellow and orange in this one that it would be okay for a girl to use if a girl should come next!

In light of this jungle theme, I bought this cork board and the little characters at Hobby Lobby and just glued the jungle animals onto the corners. I love it! I love cork boards in general, so I'm glad our little boy is going to have one for cards and pictures to display. I love simple, inexpensive projects like this.

On that trip to Hobby Lobby I also got these wall letters that I am going to paint white (you can't tell in the picture, but they're gray). I know what you're thinking... "You are that sure of the name and you're only five months pregnant!?" And yes, I think we are. In high school I decided I was going to have two boys and two girls, and they would be named Lincoln, Logan, Brooklyn and Madison. We don't plan on using all four of those (and I'm no longer presumptuous enough to think I can actually plan my children's genders any more!) but Lincoln has been a long time love of mine. Aaron loves it, too, and he was almost named Lincoln when he was a baby! If I have to return or throw out the letters, I'll deal with it. For now, though, it makes me happy to see his name!

Garage sales have become a new passion of mine. I got all 3 of the above things for a $1.00 total! I plan to go most Saturdays this summer to try and find some more baby deals!

These are all of my baby journals (and my real journal that is mostly devoted to talking about baby anyway) that I have been keeping up on! I love my belly book - There is a spot to write about every week and to paste in a picture. This is mostly why I have been taking so many preggo pics! The green book is a baby's first three years book I just got at Borders, and I am filling in the "all about mom & dad" and family tree portions so far. I can't wait for all of baby's firsts to go in this book!

Yes, it is still just a kit and not a completed sock monkey, but I promise it will be done before my little guy comes! I love sock monkeys and I am so excited for my little boy to have one. It even matches the jungle theme! I am probably going to sew on a few special patches or at least stitch his name into the monkey to make it extra special.

Knitting projects

2011-05-09T21:21:00.001-05:00

This past week I have had a lot of time on my hands, so I decided to start knitting baby hats for our little boy's arrival! Being born just before October in Illinois is a hard lot in life, so I want him to be equipped with hats for at least the first six months of life! Aaron took me to the craft store (which trip was pre-mature in my bed rest and NOT what the Dr. ordered, but ended up being well worth it) and we got a small pair of round needles and a bunch of boy appropriate yarn! I am trying different styles out, and plan to add more poms, bear ears, appliques, etc. once I see all the types and sizes that I have. It has been so fun and makes the time pass so much more quickly. It's a big help to actually feel productive when on bed rest. If any of you have a favorite newborn hat pattern, send it my way!

Here is what I have finished so far!

Home at last!

2011-05-01T11:37:00.001-05:00

I am happy to say the surgery is over, everything was a success, and I am on the road to recovery! We have been back home for almost 24 hours, just getting back in the swing of things.

Thursday, the morning of the surgery, I felt so calm and at peace - it was the best I have felt since finding out the news on Monday. Aaron and I slept in (I was amazed that I slept so soundly after days of tossing and turning) and had a slow, easy morning together. We had to be at Provena at noon and the surgery was at 2:00pm. I didn't start to feel nervous until I was in my hospital gown and the nurses started flowing in. They couldn't find a good vein since I was dehydrated from not being able to drink anything before the surgery and I ended up getting poked a lot of times in a lot of places. Very painful! Soon Aaron and I had to say goodbye, and they wheeled me off to the operating room where I was soon put to sleep.

Unfortunately, my body doesn't react very well to anesthesia, and I woke up in the operating room. The actual surgery was over, but I was awake for about an hour of the experience I was supposed to miss. When I woke up the nurses were removing a tube from my throat and I was choking. I was pretty disoriented, but felt a great deal of pain all over and started thrashing about trying to breathe again. I was scared about being awake in the operating room because I didn't know if it was over or not and I started sobbing. They still had to unhook me from a few things, switch me to a new bed, and take me to the recovery room before the pain medicine would start. This was hands down the most painful experience of my life. I was very cold and uncontrollably shaking, sobbing from the pain, and the morphine had to be administered in small doses so it was about 15 minutes in the recovery room before I could get a grip on myself.

Once I was calm, my doctor came to talk to me and told me it had been a piece of cake, and that everything went well. The cyst was larger than they thought, either it had grown since Monday or wasn't measured correctly, but it was 20 cm. long! He drained a whole liter of fluid from it before removing it, so my incision is only about 3-4 inches long. They had to take my left fallopian tube, but were able to leave the ovary. The nurse then came to check baby's heartbeat, and that brought the true assurance. Baby's heartbeat was checked a few times a day Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and he got more active every time. The last two times we could hear him kicking the doppler!

We were able to stay in a postpartum room that was very comfortable with two beds so Aaron could stay the night, and our own bathroom and shower. Being there for 48 hours we went through a lot of shift changes, and I can honestly say that every single nurse we had surprised me with how kind and helpful she was. The hospital experience was actually very pleasant - food was just delivered, the bed was comfortable, I had a few visitors and received beautiful flowers, and my pain was very low. I am glad to be at home, but miss a few of the perks of the hospital! My belly bump is considerably smaller than before the surgery, but it will come back with time.

Aaron is at church right now and will go back to work tomorrow. It will be interesting to see how I do on my own. My bed rest could last anywhere from 2-6 weeks, but I am feeling optimistic about it. I have felt very watched over in this whole process. I could feel the prayers of our family and friends and their fasts, and I know that I have been helped and lifted up because of them. I am so grateful to be home with my little boy growing strong. I think all three of us will be more prepared for labor and delivery now!

Goodbye, twins!

2011-04-27T23:07:00.000-05:00

This week has been an absolute roller coaster.

Monday we found out that we are having a sweet, wonderful, baby boy! I was so shocked. I know there are only two options so neither should produce shock, but I just didn't expect a boy. It makes it easier to talk to my belly now, and I can't wait to decorate the nursery, make his baby blanket, and all of the other fun projects.

Monday we also found out that my ovarian cyst that was supposed to go away on it's own has instead grown a great amount, and I need surgery as soon as possible. The cyst is 17x16x9 cm, much bigger than the baby and the placenta, and is full of 2 liters of liquid. The cyst is on my left side and baby boy on the right, so it's almost like I have twins in there.

I will go into surgery tomorrow, Thursday, at 2:00 pm at Provena. I'll stay in the hospital 2 nights, then be on bed rest for several weeks and out of work about 4-6 weeks. I will have a lovely scar up the middle of my stomach and lots of morphine pills to show for it. I am obviously very worried about our baby, but the risk is very low to both baby and me, so I am trying to just keep my stress levels down. I know stress is bad for baby so that is at least one thing I can do to help him through all of this.

We have had several opinions and feel very good about the timing of the surgery, the way the procedure is going to be done, and the doctor who is doing it. Today I have felt the power of the prayers that I know are coming from all across the country, and received a beautiful blessing from Aaron with my dad there. I am so thankful for all of the love and support from family and friends, and I know that it will help me recover and keep my spirits up!

One last photo of my belly pre-surgery and scarless!

We are daughters of our Heavenly Father...

2011-04-11T09:32:00.000-05:00

This Sunday I was released from primary, and was called as the second counselor in the young women's presidency. Wow - being a young women's leader in basically the same ward, in the same room where I was a young woman, just five years later. Now I really feel like I have gone full circle!

I really don't feel too young to be in YW, because I remember being 17 and thinking my 22 year old leaders were so old and out of touch :). They were college graduates! They were married! I never even thought about how I was as close in age to them as I was the beehives. I've heard stories from my friends about these young women calling a 20-something friend of mine "middle aged," so I think they are of the same thinking that I was. ♥.

Can I share another thought I often had when I was a 17 year old young woman in the Champaign ward? "My poor leaders... married to dorky scientists here for their Ph.Ds, and stuck in the midwest. I am getting out of here - going to BYU, living out west, and not having my husband stuck in a lab all day and at all hours of the night!" I sure showed them! :)

I'm excited about the change, but will of course miss my sweet primary class. Those 7 year olds are so eager to learn, and loving. I love their excitement and hugs and their singing!

(And I think this call means I am going to have a girl. ♥ I find out two weeks from today!)

Butterflies or Bow Ties?

2011-04-04T10:32:00.001-05:00

I am not a very patient person (something I'm sure motherhood will give me a crash course in) so waiting these last 3 weeks to find out baby's gender has been very difficult! The first thing I say to Aaron every morning has been the countdown to when we have that next ultrasound (April 25!).

I haven't had any strong impressions either way as to what the baby will be. Wait, I take that back. I have had SEVERAL strong impressions, going both ways! Some days, baby is a girl. I am so sure of it. I pick her nursery theme, I call her Charlotte all day and love my baby girl. Two days later, baby is a boy. I am so sure of it! I think of all the things he is going to be and do, and call him Lincoln all day. Sometimes there will be a week or two where baby will be a girl, and right when I think it's settled, I will wake up with my heart SHOUTING that baby is a boy! I think Heavenly Father is preparing me to be excited for either, because I've had the opportunity to celebrate and plan for both now, very happily. I just wonder if baby really will be what I wake up feeling baby is on the day of the ultrasound.

(And don't even mention the fact that it might not be clear enough at 17.5 weeks to know, or baby might not want to show.)

I just love this little baby, whether it is broken bones or prom dresses that are going to be the cause of my future stress!

Baby Pool!

2011-03-24T12:03:00.000-05:00

Get involved in our baby's life early by participating in our baby pool! Just click on the link below and submit your guesses. The winner will get a prize from the mom & dad to be :).

Baby makes three!

2011-03-23T10:52:00.002-05:00

We're having a baby!

I'm about 3 months along, and baby is due on September 30, 2011. We are ecstatic.

I'm at the very end of the first trimester, and hope the second trimester brings as much relief as people say it does! Exhaustion and nausea aren't fun for anyone. But do you know what is fun? Starting to see a little bump!

We had the first ultrasound today and got to meet our doctor. I am going to the same doctor that delivered my nieces, Reese & Piper! The ultrasound was a lot more exciting than I expected - the baby was so clear to see and we got so many little pictures! The heartbeat is excellent and all of the growth is on track. I am one happy momma!

Seeing the picture of the baby definitely made everything seem more real for Aaron and I. There are more than just hormones inside of me making me feel this way. There is a little baby that squirms and has 5 toes on a little foot and is still so small. It was a very touching experience.

It's all in the genes

2011-03-03T17:26:00.003-06:00

No, I have not received my results back from 23andMe yet; however, I have been searching the internet trying to figure out what to expect. As I was doing it I discovered that Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are related. The best part is that they are related through the Knowlton line! I added my own line in just for fun.

BEAUTIFUL!

2011-02-17T09:07:00.000-06:00

The weather is gorgeous - highs in the 60's and it smells like spring
Aaron and I are going to the final home wrestling match tonight
Someone I love lots just got engaged ♥
I have really great friends
Natalie might come to visit next month
I had honey nut cheerios with strawberries for breakfast
IT'S A BEAUTIFUL LIFE!

Valentine's Day & More

2011-02-15T17:38:00.003-06:00

First off, I had my first laundry malfunction of the marriage on Valentine's Day. Take a look at Aaron's new sweater! He was a sport about it and made me feel a lot better. I'm going to give it a shot and see if it looks good on me now, because it's about my size! Just a little too wide and a little too short... every girl's favorite combination :).

To celebrate Valentine's Day we went to dinner at Biaggi's Ristorante Italiano - YUM! Aaron thought it was pretty authentic. The food was delicious and the atmosphere was very Valentinesy.

Aaron's birthday is this Saturday but he has a big presentation at the lab on Monday, so it is going to be muted. He is still waiting on his genetic testing results, so the true birthday will probably be whatever day that arrives! We'll have a cake and go out to eat I'm sure between rounds of testing cells at the lab. I guess that's the kind of birthday you get when you are 27 years old!

On another note, today at work I was in the office and a red headed U of I freshman boy walked in with a face covered in blood and in shock. I offered to call an ambulance (I thought he had been attacked or mugged or something!) but he looked very confused. We all assumed he lived at Presby Hall (the U of I dorms we own that are attached to our building) and was coming home to get help, and he thought we were the McKinley Health Center rather than the McKinley Foundation. I put on sterile gloves and got gauze to wash the blood off in the bathroom and I bet he was wondering what kind of a hospital this is, and why he is wasting money on that insurance :). Once we cleared all that up, I realized he was going to need stitches on his chin, so I drove him over to the health center. They let him right in with a nurse so I can only hope he was taken care of! Poor kid. And the cause? He fell on the ice. Illinois winters really are fatal, people!

Stay warm and have a good February!

The genetic testing ship is leaving harbor. Hop on board!

2011-01-22T14:34:00.005-06:00

We did it! We finally ordered the little saliva kit from 23andme!

People who know me well know that I have talked about this incessantly. I find that I like to study population genetics even more than my own research on cancer biology, although both are fascinatingly complex.

So what exactly is 23andme? Its a direct to consumer genetic testing kit. Our human genome has 3.2 billion bases of information and about 1 out of every 1000 bases is different between any two human beings resulting in 3 million differences. This is a huge amount of information and it is extremely expensive to create the infrastructure to collect and store and make sense of all of this information. Sequencing a human genome costs in the range of $18,000-25,000 a person with our current technologies. But what if we just looked at the sites where humans differ? Cue Illumina, a San Diego based company with a price to earning (P/E) ratio of 57. They make chips called microarrays that are able to simultaneously look at 1 million different sites on the human genome that have known variation. Each chip costs $1,000. This is dipping into the realm of reasonable pricing.

23andMe is a startup company that has had about 60,000 customers. They buy these chips from Illumina, then they test your DNA and have an awesome website to tell you information about where your ancestors were from, how you react to certain medications, what your chances are of certain life threatening illnesses and whether or not you are a carrier of rare recessive genes. They also have a relative finder where you can connect with cousins you never knew you had, probably a lot of 5th cousins. You can see which genes you share with your siblings and which parts of which chromosome you got from each grandparent. Additionally they have their own survey questions and they have helped identify genes that predict whether or not you sneeze with bright lights or if you can smell asparagus in your pee. 23andme has attracted a lot of attention from venture capitalists including Google. They have secured funding from the NIH for some of their studies and because numbers help increase their statistical power, they are willing to take a loss when you buy a kit. Recently the price they were offering for their service was $499, I was waiting for the price to go down and it did. It is currently $199 as they are adjusting their pricing structure to find their consumer price point. I doubt the service will stay at this level because they are taking a $800 hit for offering you this service, its all part of the start-up investment.

I got my kit and it took me about 10 minutes to fill up the 2 mL of required saliva. I was so excited! I sent back my sample the next day and now I am just awaiting my results (4-6 weeks) I will let you know all about it when I get my results.

If you are related to me, I definitely encourage you to jump on board and get yours tested too, that will make my experience much more interesting.

You can download your results and can actually use the information with other open-source websites like snpedia which will give you up to date information about any new studies that come out that link certain genetic variants to a phenotype.

So as if I wasn't already enough of a smart Alec when I went to the doctors office and pretended like i knew everything already, now I will have genetic data to back it up :) "Actually Dr., I won't respond well to Warfarin, and Statins will make me nauseous."

January through pictures :)

2011-01-20T10:55:00.000-06:00

For Christmas I got Aaron a ski trip to Utah, and it was this past weekend! There was basically a Knowlton family reunion, and his grandparents and all of his aunts and uncles were there! He had a great time skiing Friday and Saturday and snowboarding on Monday. It was our first time apart in our married life and he was more sentimental about that than I expected. That made me feel good :).

I spent the weekend doing all sorts of things, mostly of a non working nature. All plans of deep cleaning and organizing were dismissed early and I made fun plans instead. Kimberly and I went grocery shopping then out to lunch. I found out she has never dyed her hair and we headed right over to Walgreens to get a box to dye it red before she could change her mind. She looks awesome! She wants it more red (I went conservative so she wouldn't hate me) so we are going to darken it this weekend.

I also did some decorating with my mom! We bought and installed curtains for the front room and the bedroom. We also got a large clock for the front room that I LOVE. You know how it is when you are perfectly happy with the way you look until one day you notice you need a haircut, and then you can't stand the sight of yourself until you get one? It was like that with me and curtains. I never even noticed we didn't have them until something happened, and since I have been disgusted by our living room and embarrassed to invite anyone over! My mom is the best. You should see that woman with a power drill. She is also the queen of "doing things when your husband is out of town" :). That scares Aaron. A lot. He was terrified to go out of town and leave us here unwatched. He ended up being happy with what we did, luckily. I don't have a picture of the curtains, but here is a picture of my mom.

My BFF Michelle got back from 6 months in Nigeria this week, and surprised me at work!! There was some unprofessional screaming. Beautiful girl! I'm so glad she's home.

Work has been interesting. We find out next Thursday who is staying and who is being let go. My prediction is that they are going to keep 2 people to stay full time and 1 or 2 people to stay part time out of the entire staff. I am hopeful that I will be able to stay here part time! It has been stressful waiting, and I don't have any plans for what I will do if I am let go, but I feel peaceful about everything. Whatever happens, we'll be fine. I might need to endure some boredom at home, but at least I would be able to increase my cooking skills and have a cleaner house and plan cheesy FHEs. If anyone knows about any job opportunities, keep me in mind!

Other than work, I am keeping busy in Primary! My CTR 7s are the best. We have so much fun, and they are excited about reading the scriptures! Last week 4 out of 5 of them read the scriptures 5 or 7 days. They are also memorizing the books in the New Testament and all of them have it down - I am impressed with them every week.

This week was the first Activity Days of the semester. Team building games! I love their faces.

Just as a final note, this is the picture that comes up on my phone when Aaron calls. LOVE IT.

Filterless people

2011-01-05T15:53:00.000-06:00

For the past few days I have been battling a sinus infection and everyone at work told me I sounded terrible, they could hear me hacking from down the hall, and I should go home. Yesterday afternoon I finally did, and with my nazally voice I said goodbye to a male coworker I had been around quite a bit. I told him I was going home sick, and he said "Hmm... pregnant?" I replied, as sinusy as a human can sound, "No... sinus infection." He didn't respond. I bet if I broke my leg he would blame my grimaces on my period. MEN!

Ringing in 2011

2011-01-03T17:23:00.001-06:00

Happy holidays & New Year! It has been really eventful around here since Christmas. My whole family came home and we had a traditional Bucey holiday. We had snow all of December, and then on Christmas Eve there was a great snowfall all day, so we had a beautiful, white Christmas!

On December 23rd everyone was finally in town, and the girls went out to TGI Fridays and the boys went out to Buffalo Wild Wings. It was a fun new tradition since we have two new son-in-laws this Christmas! Add on baby Zax, and that's 3 new boys in the family.

On Christmas Eve we had a buffet of appetizers and watched Smokey Mountain Christmas - our two favorite traditions! We opened pajamas, played Wits and Wagers, and helped the nieces get ready for Santa.

Christmas morning was great - Aaron and I had our own little Christmas in our apartment and opened our presents to each other (he got me a pearl necklace and earrings and I got him a trip to Utah to go skiing with his family) and then went to the Bucey's for the rest of the day.

We celebrated our one year anniversary on the 30th! It was a great week to have off work. Aaron made it really special - I got chocolates and a rose and a book of memories from our first year together. I just can't believe it's only been one year, because I can't remember what life was like before Aaron!

Saturday was a very special day for us, because my friend Kimberly was baptized. I invited her to church the first Sunday of December, and before sacrament meeting even started she asked me where she could sign up to be baptized, because she felt so good there. It was a quick, amazing journey. Aaron baptized her and I gave the talk on baptism. She will be going to the singles' ward now, so we went there with her and Aaron confirmed her yesterday, and it was great to see how quickly she was fellowshipped. I wanted to say congratulations to her after sacrament meeting, but there were so many people crowded around her I couldn't get through! She is a really special girl and I am lucky to know her.

To top it all off, my best friend Christina stayed with us on Saturday night, as she was driving from Utah to Delaware. So nice to see her and to have her see our apartment, and new life! After living with her for 3 and 1/2 years, it's so hard to say goodbye and move away. I hope we get more chances to see each other in the future.

All of the bliss ended today and we were sent back to work. It was an awesome break - long and relaxed and together. ♥

Primary

2010-12-13T14:38:00.000-06:00

This Sunday Aaron and I were told that our primary assignment is being changed in the new year. We are leaving our Sunbeams for the CTR 7 class all the way up in senior primary! We will have 3 girls and 3 boys. I know a few of the children we will have and they are wonderful. I am still doing Activity Days with the 8-11 year old girls, so it will be nice to get to know the 7 year old girls before they come in. I would be lying, though, if I said I wouldn't miss my Sunbeams and that I didn't almost cry right there in Sharing Time.

I told the kids this past week that they won't be Sunbeams forever, and that in 3 weeks they are going to get a new classroom and a new teacher and be CTR 4s. Jaws were literally dropped. It was adorable. I am not going to to make it through December 26th dry-eyed!

Winter entertainment

2010-12-12T22:55:00.000-06:00

In the winter in Illinois, it's hard to find entertainment. Today my nieces helped.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

2010-11-28T00:16:00.001-06:00

Thanksgiving was wonderful - I loved having family, friends, great food, games, and all the usual traditions. By nightfall, however, I must admit that my mind was only on one thing; Christmas. I went Black Friday shopping on Thanksgiving night from 10:30 pm - 2:30 am with Mom, Holly, and her friend Channon. It was awesome.

On Friday Aaron and I skipped all of the early shopping and went to Hobby Lobby for some 1/2 price Christmas sales in the afternoon. We got a tree skirt, angel tree topper, gold bulbs, wrapping paper, and a few other Christmas essentials. I started crafting when we got home, and was so ready for the tree I couldn't stand it! We went to my parent's house and got all of my childhood ornaments to get ready to decorate.

Saturday afternoon we drove to a tree farm out past Mahomet to pick out a tree! I must admit, I was disappointed when we arrived. I think we're spoiled in the mid-west, because there are so many tree farms to choose from out in the country and I've been to some huge ones over the years. This one was TINY compared to my standards, and I'm a whiner. Can you tell? :)

We did find a tree we liked at the tree farm, though, and it just so happened to be one of the farthest ones from the barn. Aaron got a good work-out sawing it down and carrying it back! When I go with my family we usually drag it... now I'm not sure if that's just because we are wimpy or if we were doing it the normal way and Aaron's just a bit more rugged than the average man!

The owners were really nice and helpful and didn't make fun of us when they saw we brought our little BMW to bring the tree home. (I didn't think this was an odd decision until I saw it parked next to a row of pick-up trucks.)

We had a great time decorating the apartment and the tree, and getting ready for Christmas! I am very excited for our first married Christmas and starting our own family traditions. (Anyone thinking of 100 MFHD classes?) Bring on the snow and Christmas music!

Poof?

2010-11-19T14:17:00.001-06:00

I know I've sworn off the poof before, but this time I'm for real.

Today my co-worker told me that I remind her of the girl on the Progressive auto insurance commercials.

I will never 'poof' again.

Bumper Cars and Exotic Cars

2010-11-15T16:55:00.003-06:00

I know many of you are anxious to hear all of the details about our car accident that I was in last Saturday, and others may have never even heard about it. Don't fret, I will give you all of the details and I will appease my beautiful wife by posting something on our blog. Doesn't she do a great job of keeping you updated on our exciting life? I just love her and think she's great.

On Saturday (Nov 6) I had to run in to the lab for a few hours to isolate some DNA from my overnight growths of recombinant bacteria. I was almost home, in fact, I was stopped to turn into our parking lot when the driver of a red 1999 Ford Ranger decided not to stop and fancied an attempt at parking his truck in my trunk. Well needless to say, he was successful. I was aware that he was behind me all along, I saw him in my rear view mirror and he was quite a distance behind me, I had been stopped for what seemed like 10 seconds before he ever hit me. I'm not sure how he was able to navigate such a long stretch of road without ever looking ahead, but once again he was surprisingly talented. A few seconds before the collision, when he was about 20 feet away I honked my horn because I realized that he wasn't slowing down at all, and then I thought, oh no, this is not going to be fun. I never feared for my life and I was actually quite relaxed, I had no idea what kind of force would actually hit me. Then all of a sudden, my world got rocked and I'm really not sure what happened, it's like those seconds just disappeared. I felt disoriented and confused about what happened. My first thought were to check to see that I did not have any serious injuries, there was some blood and my head felt like it had been hit both on the front and from behind and I did not know whether they were bleeding or not. My next thought was, oh no, what about the other driver, how is he doing? I hope he is ok. I stepped out of the car and he was already on his way over to my car apologizing profusely, saying he would pay for everything (I wasn't worried about who was going to pay for it because I knew it would be his insurance). He was worried about all the stuff on my face, which I told him not to worry about because that was just snot, but I had him check my head to make sure it wasn't bleeding, and everything was ok there.

The next thing I did was called 911, there were some cars that passed by and asked if we were ok. The police officer was there super fast, like in 1 minute. After I got off the phone with dispatch, I called Amy and told her to come outside, she threw on her sweats and came out immediately. I feel bad because she wanted to be close and hold me and I just needed space, so after she figured that out she decided to go inside and change into some better clothes in case we had to go anywhere, she also brought out our first aid kit to sterilize and treat my mangled right thumb. I talked with the kid a little bit, and I asked him if he ever even touched his brakes, and I was surprised to hear he hadn't. He said he was just driving along and then all of a sudden his airbag went off. The speed limit is 35, and he was going with the speed of traffic, I would say somewhere between 40-45. That is a lot of force, I think I calculated that there are 48 tons of force for a 3700 lb truck going 40 mph to stop in 2 feet. This is an overestimation of the force however because after he hit me, we went forward about 2 1/2 car lengths from initial impact.

The forces on my car surprised me at first, but after thinking about it some more, they all made sense. If you are standing there and someone runs into you (imaging a football tackle) you move forward with the person tackling you. I was thinking this is what would happen to me when my car got hit by another car. But what actually happened was that all of the force on me and other things in the car were pushing back, things at rest want to stay at rest (Imagine a brain inside a cranium during a helmet to helmet collision). My seat was reclined, my radio/6-disc CD changer had flew out of its spot, I think the garage door opener to where Amy works hit me in the forehead and ended up in the backseat. The back glass was shattered and the front of his truck was basically pressed up against the back seats, in effect converting my sedan into a hatchback. My airbags did not deploy, but after further study about rear collisions, this makes sense, because the force is backward and you don't need the air bag.

The tow guys came, one truck for each vehicle. They first tried to pull mine out, but it was so entwined with the truck behind it, they had to hook the truck up too, and pull the two vehicles apart. My back tires were so compacted that they no longer turned and the eventually had to get a flat bed to be able to tow the Corolla. We rescued some things out of the trunk, like a can of play-dough that we use when we teach the sunbeams at church, and one of Amy's skirts because apparently skirts are irreplaceable, but our tent and some other things were a total loss. We also forgot to get our CDs out of the center console.

I reported the accident to my insurance and I filed a claim with his insurance, we got a rental car on Monday and we used that until we bought a new car on Friday. I spent a large chunk of time during the week looking for vehicles on ebay. First I picked 50, then with Amy's help we narrowed it to like 20, then further down to 9, we slept on it and eliminated 2 overnight and ultimately decided that there would be two cars that we would be really sad if we didn't pick. A 2004 Acura TL with built in navigation in New York, and a 2002 BMW 325i a few hours away in Chicago. We decided to go with the Bimmer, and drove up to Chicago Friday afternoon to purchase it. It is an awesome car and we just love all of the cool features it has. We actually got it for less money than the Corolla is worth. I guess no one wants all of the repair costs of a Bimmer that is no longer under warranty. Maybe we shouldn't either, but it is just too fun not to have at the moment.

My back and neck still hurt a little and I have an appointment with the Chiropractor on Wednesday, but the pain is softened by the heated leather seats in my brand new used car!

One last funny story to tell, Amy is going to be mad at me for this one, but it is just a classic. Amy sometimes gets confused about the difference between exotic and erotic, so she couldn't believe that we would buy a car from a place with a name like exotic motors! Well, the whole car buying process took a long time, and we were driving home late from Chicago and we were tired and exhausted. The heated seats were soothing and nice. Apparently, Amy was overcome and couldn't resist the added comfort of taking her pants off. I guess the dealership sells cars that really live up to its name!

Halloween!

2010-11-01T15:24:00.001-05:00

Happy Halloween! It was a great one. Aaron and I had a lot of fun carving pumpkins and making caramel apples with my family on Saturday night. It was Alyssa's first time carving a pumpkin, and she loved seeing it with a candle inside. Completely mesmerized. She was especially pleased to have Aunt Natalie to help her. Even though that was the only thing we did to celebrate Halloween, it was enough for our grown, childless selves!

On Saturday Aaron and I got invited to go to the Illinois vs. Purdue football game. It was our first time in the stadium and we had a lot of fun! It's so nice to have such great young couples in the ward. Lots of people our age in our schooling situation that are so friendly and kind. Plus we killed Purdue, which is always a plus.

My sister Natalie was in town from Minneapolis this weekend and it was really great spending time with her. The whole family seemed to congregate at Holly's house all weekend talking and playing games. Everyone in my immediate family was here except for Jessica, so it got me really excited for Christmas. Everyone is going to be here, and for longer!

Piper's birthday was Saturday so we went to Kamakura for dinner to celebrate. YUM! That little two year old. Can't wait until she starts talking more and I can find out what is in that goofy little head of hers. She really is a saucy little red head.

I wish every weekend was this eventful! I miss Natalie already, and just got in the Halloween spirit now that it's over and done with. This week should be pretty eventful too, though. Tonight we're having a couple from the ward over for FHE (dinner, lesson, and making pretzels) and on Wednesday I have Activity Days with the 8-11 year old girls in the ward. They are a blast. Carli and I planned a yoga/fitness night so I bought grapes and apples to snack on, and now I'm just looking forward to seeing the girls have fun with the poses!

I feel pretty blessed.

The Hunger Games

2010-10-21T12:34:00.000-05:00

Picked up the first book of The Hunger Games trilogy from the library on Tuesday after work and haven't put it down since. Just finished it today, and I find myself checking the library website to see if my queue order has changed for my hold for the second book! I can't stop thinking about the characters now and wondering what they are up to! Such a great read! Can't wait for the movie, either. It's going to be intense, and Aaron will probably like it more than he did Twilight, so that's a plus for him :).

♥

2010-10-15T10:21:00.000-05:00

It's a pretty beautiful October. My sisters Natalie and Jessica just had birthdays, and I sure love both of them! Christina's birthday is this month, too! My niece Piper's birthday is coming up the day before Halloween and I am excited for her party... turning 2 is a cause for much celebration! Sometimes I feel like I live from birthday to birthday. I didn't really realize this until I went to college, but birthdays are a huge deal in my family. I was babysitting my nieces last night, and on their counter I found a library book called "You Have to Be Nice to Someone on Their Birthday." I read it to the girls and we all loved it. I guess it's ingrained into us when we're young :).

And just for fun... here are some pictures of my little hunnies goofing off at bedtime and playing the Wii.

My biggest accomplishment this month has been finishing Little Women! I guess it's not a shocker that a book about four sisters, the youngest of which is named Amy, with a wonderful mother and happy lives and good values would latch onto my heart. But did it ever! I love reading and get very emotionally involved as it is, but I sure loved this book. I've got to go to the library to get a new one before my reading fever dies down. Any suggestions? Any genre... just something that leaves me feeling good.

Aaron and I are going to the St. Louis temple tomorrow and I can't wait! We'll get to spend a whole day together (it's been a very busy couple of weeks for him at work, so that hasn't happened in awhile), and I'm sure it will help relieve us of some of the stress we've been carrying lately.

Happy Friday!

Happy Birthday Baby Oldham!

2010-10-06T09:39:00.001-05:00

Congratulations to Kimberly & Josh on their new baby boy! He is 9 lb. 5 oz. and has lots of hair! His name is still to be decided. Kimberly did it naturally, and I praise her for her strength and bravery in that.

Aaron and I are so excited to have a new baby nephew and can't wait to meet him. Come home from England, baby, and let us meet you!

Are you together?

2010-10-04T14:55:00.000-05:00

When Aaron and I go out together, unless it's a formal restaurant, we're asked "Are you together?" It drives me crazy!

We went out for ice cream on SATURDAY NIGHT and were holding hands, talking to each other the entire time, and were still asked whether we were paying together or separate. We go out to casual restaurants and are asked every time.

I understand that people normally don't look at rings and that living in a college town and being so young people wouldn't assume that we're married. But don't people date? Don't men usually pay for the dinner of the girl who's hand they are holding and are out with on the weekend? Maybe I'm super out of touch, having been in Provo and being married, but I hope these cashiers and waiters are just being very thorough. Dating is good! Boys paying is good! I hope there continues to be more of it in the world!

Will this go away once I don't look like a college student anymore? Does this bug anyone else?

NiNe MoNtHs

2010-09-30T13:13:00.000-05:00

Happy nine monthiversary to my wonderful husband!

Kimberly is due this weekend and I can't believe she's been pregnant our entire marriage because I think we've been married forever by now. You go girl! Aaron and I are still at the point where we've both lived with several people longer than we've lived with each other, and that is just hard to believe! Just one school year? I'm glad neither of us have to go home for summer break ♥.

Crosswords

2010-09-28T11:57:00.000-05:00

Lately Aaron and I have been really into crossword puzzles. Yahoo has a daily crossword that is interactive, and a great skill level! We do it nearly every day. It's fun to see how different our knowledge sets are. Some things Aaron comes up with amaze me, and I get to show him my pop culture and common sayings knowledge :). Fun couple activity to get your minds thinking together! If anyone knows of another good online crossword website, let us know!!

September Updates

2010-09-24T13:31:00.000-05:00

Hey all! Time is just marching right on, as usual. Aaron and my nine month anniversary is next week and that's exciting! For once there is nothing big to count down to, so I'm just enjoying every day. Enjoying our evenings together, planning fun weekends, and trying to find pleasure in my job. It depends on the day but sometimes I really like my job. It's something I think I'm good at and I am enjoying trying to update the office to more digital, more efficient methods!

Aaron is TAing an MCB 100 class at the U of I this semester and is really enjoying it! He just got his first TA reviews back and they were excellent. He has three sections and knows everyone's names and really cares about how each of them is doing. He is going to make a great Professor someday if he goes that route! He tells me jokes he thinks about telling them all of the time and it cracks me up. Such a nerd ♥. The first day he told them all that if their phone goes off in class they have to come to the front and sing a Justin Bieber song. One kid asked what would happen if he didn't know any Justin Bieber songs, and Aaron said he would put a Bieber music video up and they would have to dance to it. I don't think all of them knew he was kidding :).

I've been enjoying spending a lot of time with my family. My nieces are getting so big and it's fun to get to be a part of their every day routine. Aaron and I got to go to Alyssa's first ever soccer game last weekend. It was sooo cute! She doesn't quite get the concept yet, but she sure gets excited. I stopped by unexpectedly yesterday after work when I knew they were all at my parent's house, and found Alyssa and Reese playing in the yard. I just saw their faces light up when they saw me and it made me feel really special. Of course as soon as I get out of the car the first thing Reese asks is "Did you bring Aaron?" as always. Too cute.

Tonight Aaron and I are going to a U of I volleyball game against Penn State with one of our best couple friends, Carli & Tanner. It should be a good game, and it'll be fun to get out there to show some Illini pride!

Here Comes the Fall

2010-09-15T11:09:00.000-05:00

So long sweet summer! We are starting to get FALL here in Illinois! No beautiful leaves yet or any of that, but cooler nights, students EVERYWHERE, and a whole different feel. I love it! Aaron, not so much. He sees fall as a prelude to eternal winter (which really is eternal in Illinois) but right now even winter is exciting because I all I can think about is all of the clothes I am going to get to start wearing again! I love seasonal clothing switches.

My sister Natalie got married on September 5th in Minneapolis, and it was awesome. The whole family was there, and I got to see little 3 month old Zax again! Alyssa (my 5 year old niece) was the flower girl, and all 3 sisters were bridesmaids. We had some fun girl moments together and with two of our favorite cousins, Denise & Diana.

Aaron and I had a surprise. A month or two before the wedding we bought a sumo suit on Amazon and a 3XL pink t-shirt. That sounds like a recipe for no good :). I kept the secret from EVERYONE in the family which was an accomplishment, and at the bachelorette party Aaron burst in the door and did a sumo strip for us. He had a mustache and a tie, and enjoyed taking off his tie and ripping off the t-shirt to expose the sumo suit. We were laughing so hard I couldn't breathe. We have it on video, but I don't think Aaron would appreciate that being posted :). At least we have pictures to enjoy!

On the way home from Minnesota Aaron and I stopped in La Crosse, WI where I grew up. We get together with two of my BEST friends Kristin Mattes and Rachel Portner. We had lunch and walked around Riverside Park. It was a really great day of catching up. Rachel has a six month old named Simon who I was excited to meet. True friends are forever. Aaron was great and saw my old house and some favorite places around town. I miss that pretty little town!

My job is going really well - I am finding a lot of projects to do to make positive changes for the foundation. My big blood drive is next Monday, so after that all of my stressful events will be over! Everyone is really welcoming, friendly, and laid back. It feels good to have a legitimate job with my own office and responsibilities and to feel like I am contributing to society in some way everyday. But, I am getting baby crazy. I'm not exactly trying to climb the corporate ladder here! More later!

Miss you all... ♥

Movin' On Up

2010-07-13T14:44:00.001-05:00

If you haven’t heard yet, I got a new job! Tomorrow will be my first day at the McKinley Foundation as the Foundation Secretary. I worked there last summer as an intern and really enjoyed it. As the Foundation Secretary I’ll have my own office (for the first time!) and will be over renting out the rooms there, as well as being in charge of the student desk staff. I’ll also act as a secretary for the Chief of Operations, Finances, and Administration. My mom just so happens to be the Chief of Finances, too, so that makes it fun! Working on campus is also nice because that means I’ll be close to Aaron so we can drive to work together and can meet up for lunch much more often. A stricter dress code also means SHOPPING!

I was happy with my work as an Administrative Assistant at a Food Broker, but my new job is going to give me about a 45% raise in my salary, as well as going from no benefits to full benefits for Aaron and I, so it was time to move on. I’m ready for an office rather than my corner cubicle, too! Today is my last day working here, and saying goodbye and packing up my desk has been hard so far. I was a temp here for three months and then was hired, and have worked almost a month since then. They’ve asked me to stay on about five hours a week to help with their biggest client that there is a lot of paperwork for, so I plan to do that if my workload at McKinley allows.

I’m a little nervous about what tomorrow will bring. I have Wednesday and Thursday to be trained by the girl who is leaving (going to Washington DC for grad school) so I won’t be on my own until Friday which is nice. I’m anticipating a little more stress, but I hope that it will be worth it! I’ll keep you posted on my work adventures!

My Muscle Man

2010-07-09T11:48:00.000-05:00

Here are the pictures from Aaron's lab olympics!
Blood, sweat, and tears!

Summer Days

2010-07-01T13:45:00.003-05:00

I feel like I have lost all communication with everyone these past few weeks! I haven't e-mailed family or seen Michelle or called Chrsitina... lame. I blame the World Cup for making Aaron and I shut-ins! At least now I have lots of news to share!

Two weekends ago Aaron and I made plans to go to the drive-in to see Toy Story 3 and invited my five year old niece Alyssa along. I wanted to get to spend more time with her, we thought she'd like the movie and be excited about the drive-in, and I wanted a kid test-drive. I wanted to know what would be different because of it and how Aaron and I would do!

The movie was AWESOME. I laughed so hard I cried, then I really did cry... I was really impressed. Best family film I've seen in years. Alyssa liked it too, but probably enjoyed chasing the fireflies at intermission even better! About fifteen minutes before the movie was over a severe thunderstorm hit and we all went running for the cars!

The storm raged the entire 45 minute drive home, and something started raging inside of Alyssa as well, and she vomitted about 4 times in Aaron's car. (Hmm... does this sound familiar to anyone? Bad weather, can't pull over, vomitting in Aaron's car on a long trip?) We had few resources in the car to take care of the mess and the crying child, and so my close exposure to it all ended up getting me sick for a week!

And THAT is what I call a kid test-drive.

Just when I was feeling better I got the great idea over my lunch break to move the HUMUNGOUS dresser in our room to another wall, and I threw out my back so badly I could barely walk! I guess I'm not my mother quite yet. She can move ANYTHING. I got lots of being waited on and lots of heating pad time and not doing much of anything for a few days. I guess it didn't turn out so badly after all :).

Tuesday was a pretty special day - Aaron's lab had "Lab Olympics" which was his lab competing against two smaller labs combined in every physical test you could imagine! They started around 1:00pm and competed in several different venues, eventually ending up at Lake of the Woods Park where the spouses joined for a picnic and the final events were held. They did team sports like basketball, volleyball, and ultimate frisbee, weight lifting, swimming, track and field events, tug of war, and many others! They had team shirts and had trained together over lunch breaks and on their own for over a month.

Aaron was especially excited about the weight lifting and trained a lot for the dead lifts and bench press. He also competed in the 100m, 4x4 relay, basketball, volleyball, tug of war, and the three legged race. In the individual events he said he got 4th in almost everything, showing that he has depth :).

At the end of the day the babies were getting fussy and the competitors were getting tired, and his lab only needed 2 pts. before they would clinch the win and everyone could go home! There were 5 pts for first place, 3 pts. for second place, and 1 pt. for first place given, and the three legged race was up! I am proud to say that Aaron and his partner Howard came in 2nd and clinched the final points needed for a win! It was an exciting moment. (pictures to come)

On a related note, Aaron's back is now as bad as mine was and can hardly walk and I am now doing a lot of waiting on! We're planning on going to the pool tonight so he can try and swim to loosen it up.

To top off the excitement, yesterday was our six month anniversary! I can hardly believe it's been that long, but can also hardly believe it's been that short! Best six months ever. We went out for dinner and watched a movie at home to celebrate last night but kept it chill because we're planning on actually celebrating it on Friday night. I love birthdays and anniversaries and holidays and I love spending them with Aaron!

We're both getting very excited about going out to Utah and Idaho for the family reunion to see family and friends.

July is my favorite ♥.

Career Woman!

2010-06-17T11:57:00.001-05:00

I'm just home for my lunch break at work so this is going to be short, but sweet! This morning I was offered the job at the company where I've been temping for the past 3 months! Aaron and I are relieved and happy for sure. I'm working at a food broker named "Five Star Sales" as an administrative assistant where I do mostly financial secretarial work. It's my first salary job and it couldn't have come at a better time. Prayers are answered!

Homemaker Hair Cut!

2010-06-05T18:26:00.001-05:00

After attending youtube beauty school for four minutes, I felt confident enough to cut Aaron's hair for the first time. I was so excited to be a little wife who cuts her hair for her husband! I can't wait to have a little son and to get to cut his hair, too :). I think it was a success, but I am in a super good mood today so you'll have to ask Aaron.

Lyrical Talents.

2010-06-02T12:09:00.001-05:00

Last night Aaron and I were laying around in the living room and he asked me to sing a Ke$ha song for him. (That may sound strange to you, but I pride myself on memorizing wordy songs and raps and imitating the artist. Ke$ha's the best to imitate.) I sang "Love Drug" to him and then I decided to quiz him and sang "Tik Tok" leaving on the last word of each phrase and making him fill it in. The hilariousness of his inability to fill in even a single rhyming word set us off on a night long course of seeing what lyrics Aaron knew from dozens of songs.

We did his favorite bands, favorite songs, timeless classics, and new hits he hears non stop on the radio. The findings were astounding and pretty hilarious. Here are some of the lyrics Aaron sang. We are SO doing this for a ward talent/lack of talent show some day :).

----------------------------------------------------
"To the Left to the Left, everyone you know in the box to the left."
"In the closet, that's my style."

"Wouldn't it be nice if we were lonely."

"Don't call me names, don't call me names... Allejandro.
I'm not the same, I'm not the same... Allejandro.
Something about, something about... Fernando.
Wait- there's a Roberto in there?"
(He also tried to translate this song for me one time... which was hilarious)

"Pedicure on my cat, cat"
"Tick tok on the rock DJ play another song"

"Fake it, fake it, baby, baby,
Fake it, fake it, pop & lock it"
----------------------------------------------------

(And this is him on the floor refusing to stop singing Chicago songs, several of which he was mixing up and molding into one song accidentally. Oh yeah, with mostly the wrong lyrics!) :)

Teeny Boppers :)

2010-05-01T12:18:00.000-05:00

I used to be obsessed with taking teen quizzes. "Who's your celebrity crush," "Are you a good friend," "How well do you know Justin Timberlake," ... the list goes on. They were awesome. I don't go to teen magazine websites to search them out anymore, but now they pop up all over on Facebook!

Sadly, yet not too sadly, I think my days of teen quizzes are over. I can't accurately answer questions like "What do you do if your crush asks you out?" anymore. I guess I'll have to decide "Who's my Twilight guy" on my own. Well... maybe I'll still take that one :).

HAIR statements.

2010-04-25T19:52:00.000-05:00

When I went to BYU as a freshman I was so surprised by "Utah hair" and swore I would never subscribe to the "poof." By sophomore year it snuck into my repetoire and by senior year it WAS my repetoire. All poof, huge, volumous, all the time. It was never a problem until I moved back to Illinois. This past month I started noticing that not a single person wore their hair like mine, not even at church. I realized that my hair wasn't exactly in style, but I LIKED it!

Saturday morning Aaron and I went to IHOP for breakfast and I was styling a half-up poof. The young high school cashier asked us if we had any fun weekend plans and I told her we were going to the Gold & Green Ball that night at church, and it was a formal. She looked like a mystery had been solved and asked "So is that why you have your hair like that?" Ouch.

We were supposed to go dress shopping but before we got to the mall we decided that a trip to the hair salon might be more pressing. Aaron had been suggesting that I get side bangs for weeks, and I was resisting because I had FINALLY grown my bangs out and didn't want to go through that again. But bangs were to be the solution to ending the poof permanently.

The dance turned out to be a fun event- I wore my prom dress from senior year and Aaron wore his Italian linen suit. Rockstars! :)

Family

2010-04-22T12:46:00.001-05:00

I feel like I just can't get enough family lately. Whether it's talking to my mom or e-mailing the Knowltons, I just need family! Aaron said something interesting to me last year about how people forget that their families are the most important thing in adolescence, but sometime after the thrills of college are over, they remember and never forget again. I think that's really true.

In high school I wanted to spend the weekends with my friends and was surprised every time I went shopping with my mom and loved it. Then college comes and you have FREEDOM and BOYS and LIFE DECISIONS and ROOMMATES and the memories of curfews and rules make you yearn for even more independence and freedom.

I feel like I am a completely different person now than I once was.

Country songs make me cry all of the time. I'll be sitting at work, hear a song about a family or a new baby or childhood memories and I will just cry (or at least get crazy goosebumps). I can really tell that my focus in life and where I seem to fit in to society have changed. I am so thankful for all of my family and for the blessings of the temple that will keep us together forever. You are my best friends and greatest support. I love you! ♥

Tragedy.

2010-04-08T19:34:00.001-05:00

Tragedy has struck the Knowlton home today. At 6:34pm Victoria was found dead from an infection. We will always love her ♥.

The Twilight Tank

2010-04-02T16:49:00.001-05:00

Ever since Aaron got our aquarium ($20, everything included, from a guy in his lab!) I wanted to get fish and name them Ella & Bedward. When I talk to Aaron about Twilight and I get excited I start to talk really fast, and I call them Ella & Bedward instead of Bella & Edward and Aaron makes fun of me. I thought they would make clever fish names.

For our three month anniversary we went and got three more fish (we already had three Aaron had picked out) and I finally got Ella & Bedward! We had already named all of the other fish, but somehow all of their names were changed to a Twilight theme. You wouldn't believe how much more interest I have in the fishtank now :).

I tried taking pictures of our fish in the tank but they were way too fast so here are some pictures of the kind of fish they are, and their Twilight counterpart.

Don't even ask how long it took me to make this graphic. It's sick. I love Twilight.

Belated March News

2010-04-02T15:51:00.001-05:00

It's April! There IS beauty to be seen in Illinois! Miraculous. The highlights of March were my niece Alyssa's 5th birthday party at Chuck E Cheese, getting a long term job, my mom's 60th birthday, and Aaron and I starting an aquarium! Updates on the job and the aquarium to come :). We need to take more pictures of our day to day, I am realizing. You just don't do photo shoots with your husband like you do with roommates, sadly.

Speaking of "day to day," this is what Aaron's looks like.

I could fill a book with pictures of him looking at the fishtank like that if I was quicker with snapping pictures without him noticing.

Needless to say, he loves it.

We sure are excited for Conference/Easter weekend! Aaron is making waffles on Sunday morning and we are having a big Easter dinner with my family that afternoon. He gets home in a little less than two hours and I still don't know what our Friday date night will consist of, but on a 78 degree day, the possibilities are endless ♥.

iTunes Top 25

2010-03-01T11:11:00.000-06:00

Last April I posted a list of my iTunes Top 25 most played songs on my old blog. Since then my iTunes crashed so my play counter started over and I lost all of my play lists, so it was interesting to see what songs I listened to then. I have gotten really into country music since then, too, mostly from Aaron, Christina, and Beth's influence. So here it is... completely different. New music for a new page in my life!

Body Language- Jesse McCartney
I Run to You- Lady Antebellum
Your Man- Josh Turner
Irreplaceable- Beyonce
Baby- Justin Bieber
Stolen- Dashboard Confessional
Bruised- Jack's Mannequin
Down- Jay Sean
So Not My Baby- Josh Turner
Is Anybody Loving You These Days- Dierks Bentley
Firecracker- Josh Turner
Party in the USA- Miley Cyrus
In Your Atmosphere- John Mayer
Baby I Go Crazy- Josh Turner
Come a Little Closer- Dierks Bentley
One Less Lonely Girl- Justin Bieber
St. Patrick's Day- John Mayer
Best Days of Your Life- Kelly Pickler
Sweet Dreams- Beyonce
I Wanna Make You Close Your Eyes- Dierks Bentley
Some Hearts- Carrie Underwood
Already Gone- Kelly Clarkson
Won't Go Home Without You- Maroon 5
Need You Now- Lady Antebellum
Don't Think I Don't Think About It- Darius Rucker

Run it!

2010-02-26T11:19:00.001-06:00

Our first couple run :). We thought we were pretty funny.

Let's get fit!

St. Louis

2010-02-23T14:45:00.000-06:00

Just some pictures from our trip to St. Louis. As you can see I started the picture taking early in the day, but you can't miss a single minute of a birthday!

Happy Birthday Aaron!

2010-02-19T09:34:00.001-06:00

February 19th! Aaron is 26 today! My favorite number. I made him a banana cake to take into work, then we're off to St. Louis around 6:00pm! Tomorrow we're going to the Gateway Arch, the temple, the Science Center, and ice-skating on the largest outdoor skating rink! I'm really excited. So far it's clear that I'm more excited about his birthday than he is :).

Happy birthday Aaron!

I love you!

Baby.

2010-02-16T09:11:00.001-06:00

This is my new favorite song. My iTunes play count and Aaron will back me up on that one :).

JUSTIN BIEBER!

Home

2010-02-10T10:37:00.000-06:00

I think that Aaron and I are finally 100% settled in to our apartment. We still haven't exchanged our towels to match the new bathroom color, and we don't have dishes, a dresser for me, or a love seat, but we feel very put together. It feels like a permanent place to be. My apartments at BYU didn't feel like that until I put up my photo collage on the wall next to bed and my hot pink sheets, but I am doing just fine without either :).

Aaron installed our shower caddy during an FHE lesson about how to use his new power drill from the Tonkinson family :).

I hung out Knowlton letters to surprise Aaron one day, after I got them all sray painted. Thank you Mark!

This is another view of our bedroom! Since this picture was taken I have gotten the rest of my clothes from my parent's house, the closet it overflowing now!

We love our new bookshelf. This is probably the most decorated corner of the house. Overflowing with beautiful wedding gifts!

Beautiful kitchen table from the Knowltons! It definitely makes me feel like a more legitimate wife to have a real table to serve my meals on and to decorate.

The rest of the kitchen!

Our spare room, equipped with a fouton (come visit us!) and Aaron's temple map.

We love our first little apartment. Aaron has lived here since we met. He brought me here the week we met before the first time we hung out, we had our first kiss here, we came back to this apartment after he proposed... it has a lot of history for us already.

Sunbeams!

2010-01-31T13:06:00.001-06:00

After our second week in our new ward the Bishop and his first councilor came over to have a meet & greet with Aaron and I. They called me to be in serve as an Activity Days leader- a get together the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of each month with the 8-11 year old girls in the ward. We get to do service activities, crafts, and work on the Faith in God award requirements. Fun! My partner is a great girl named Carli. The first one is in three days! We only have three girls in that age range in primary so I hope they all come.

A few days after that call a member of the primary presidency (who was my young woman leader all through high school, which is fun) called me and wanted to make sure that I knew I was the new Sunbeam teacher. I was glad she called, because I didn't :). I had my first Sunday as a Sunbeam teacher today and it was so adorable. I have six children in my class- five boys and one girl, and all three years-old! They are quite a diverse bunch when it comes to temperament and size, which is why it was so fun to get to know them all today. I think my days of wearing stilettos to church are over! I don't have a co-teacher yet so Aaron is going to help me teach my class until I get one. He was just called as the Assistant Ward Clerk so some primary with definitely spice up his Sunday :).

Aaron is pretty sick today. He threw up all last night and couldn't make it to church today. Keep him in your prayers that he will be able to feel better and make it in to the lab tomorrow!

Love you all!

Honeymoon ♥

2010-01-27T12:46:00.001-06:00

Aaron and I stayed in San Diego on the 30th and the 31st, then left for Daytona Beach, FL, early in the morning on January 1st. Happy New Years!

The first night we got a lot of attention from the hotel, and were treated so special! They sent us complimentary chocolates and a bubbly lemon drink (non-alcoholic, miraculously) with a little card to the bride & groom. The concierge took special interest in us and followed us around the hotel taking pictures of us, just laughing hysterically and acting crazy the whole time! That was a fun memory.

We went to the Knowlton home on the 31st to open presents and to say goodbye to everyone. Clark's girlfriend Mikelle flew in that day from Washington so the excitement wasn't over at the house! It was sad to say goodbye, not knowing when the next time we will see everyone!

It was a long day flying from San Diego to Orlando, especially with the time difference, but we were really excited to get there and to see the resort!

We had an amazing view of the beach from our room, which was great because all we wanted to do with it was look at it :). It just so happened that our week in Daytona Beach was the coldest in 10 years, some nights reaching 30 year record lows! Being from Illinois we could handle Florida cold, but we would have done a lot better with it if we had thought to bring jackets of any kind! Aaron only had this hoodie, so you will see him wearing it in just about every honeymoon picture we have, unless the picture was taken inside before he put it on!

We didn't let the cold ruin our fun, it just limited our beach time. We did go out on the beach our first full day in Daytona, and it was beautiful. The sand is packed SO tight on this beach that we saw bikers, and there was a traffic lane to drive right on the sand! We had to try that out, so we took a short drive of our own.

The highlight of the trip for Aaron was definitely going parasailing. He called the place that did it one of our first days there and they said the weather was too bad and they weren't open. Our last day there was gorgeous and sunny with almost no wind, and they reopened. Miracle! I was feeling very calm about the whole experience- we were supposed to go up 1,200 ft. and I felt more secure with water under me than cement. We went out on the boat into the ocean, which was a highlight in itself. Finally the time came, and they opened the parachute. When they strapped us into the parachute still on the back of the boat, the panic began to set it. We were NOT secure. There was a strap around our waist, and that was about it. The hooks that attached us to the parachute seemed like they could easily come undone. The captain unhooked one of my two hooks to the parachute telling me not to touch them because of how easily he just showed me they could come off. Then he turned and gave the signal to the driver to let us out and the boat picked up speed. I was only half hooked in!! I was going to die!! I screamed hysterically for them to stop, and they all laughed at me. What a cruel joke!

They let Aaron and I up the 1,200 ft., then to our surprise they gradually let out the rest of the 2,000 ft. rope! We were so high! It was really quiet and peaceful up there, just sitting with Aaron above the world. Granted, it was much more peaceful for him because he wasn't holding on for dear life the entire time. Coming down was one of the most fun parts, because we scooped right down above the water. On the boat ride back we saw a lot of dolphins jumping together! It was exhilarating all around.

Another highlight was going to Islands of Adventure, Universal Studios in Orlando! We went on all of the big coasters (some of which almost made me cry, some of which did now), and played around in Seuss Land. It was a really cold day so we periodically had to seek shelter inside! We both really liked the 3D Spiderman ride which was a surprise favorite. We were just exhausted by the time we went on all of the adult rides, and we headed back to Daytona Beach where we probably watched The Office and ate grilled cheese sandwiches :).

Our final thrill-seeking adventure was the human slingshot. 180 ft. tall structure with seats attached that throw you 300 ft. up into the air, 0-60 mph in 2 seconds. I couldn't eat or relax all day before we did it- I was nearly shaking for at least an hour just at the thought of it. I have no idea how Aaron convinced me that it would be a fun idea. Luckily, it wasn't nearly as scary as I thought it would be. It was FUN! There was a huge rush as we got flung to the top, then it was pretty tame bouncing after that. I would definitely do that again!

Other fun activities included mini golfing, eating at the "Top of Daytona" restaurant, grocery shopping and making lunches together, hot tubbing at the resort, seeing mini alligators, going to see the Ponce Inlet lighthouse, playing arcade games, listening to a time share presentation, checking out the Daytona race track, going to the movies, shopping, and lots of other fun little things. It felt as though we had all of Daytona Beach to ourselves, because we were the only people in most restaurants and stores we went to, and were usually the only ones on the beach! It was shocking to see all of the people when we went to Orlando :).

I just have to end by showing you our view. It was gorgeous. These are all taken from our room or from our balcony. The honeymoon was wonderful, but I love being with Aaron at home in our little apartment, too.

Wedding highlights

2010-01-26T17:31:00.005-06:00

I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I didn't say something about the wedding!

Can that just say it all? It was so perfect.

The rehearsal dinner was the night before the wedding, and everyone was there at the beautiful restaurant. The food was great, the speeches made me cry, and Aaron made a video slideshow of us. It was fun to say goodnight for the last time as we left.

I had a sleepover with the bridesmaids and we went to bed at 11:30pm, but Aaron had a late night with Clark and Cory. My alarm was set for 7am but I think I woke up at 4am so excited that I never actually went back to sleep. All the girls got their hair done, then my parents and I left for the temple!

I remember exactly how Aaron looked the first time I saw him that day. I remember thinking about the first time I ever saw him as we went into the temple together.

The sealing was wonderful and the bridal room was beautiful. The temple was the highlight of my day.

Everything happened so quickly when we came out of the temple- pictures, hugs, and suddenly everyone was off! I can't wait to see all of the pictures from Tony Corbell- he was amazing.

Aaron and I were so hungry after leaving the temple, that we went through the drive-through at In 'N Out. We got some looks, because my dress took up the entire front half of the car!

Aaron and I didn't find out about the rain in Escondido and the reception being moved until about an hour and a half before, but that was great for me because there was little time to stress. I was so happy with how everything turned out with the reception. The music was great and there were just so many special moments. Cutting the cake, the first dance, the toasts, just everything! It really was everything I wanted. The reception went really fast- I didn't have a chance to eat a thing! I didn't get nearly enough time to say goodbye to everyone, but everything was such a rush. I'm married!

Aaron and I are so thankful to everyone for their help with our wedding. It is so overwhelming to think of the hours of hard work and love that so many people put into our special day.

Married. FINALLY!

2010-01-20T12:47:00.001-06:00

Hello, world! Aaron and I have been married for three weeks now, and I feel like I am finally starting to poke my head out again and socialize with people! It has been a full time job setting up the apartment and getting all moved in, but one that I LOVE. I keep asking Aaron if I can stop job-searching to be a full time wife, but he says no :(. Lol. I heard someone say something recently, and I think it was Mom Knowlton (how do people differentiate without sounding goofy?), about a girl who was a great girl, but when she got married she really found her niche in life and excelled. I feel like being married is my niche. Granted, I don't have a job or children so it's a pretty sheltered version of wifehood, but it's amazing.

I'm going to split up all of my blogging into a few posts so I can write a little when I feel so inspired :). I'll end this one with my favorite photo of January. This is Aaron painting Reese's nails for the wedding reception in Champaign. She loves Uncle Aaron and kept him entertained while I was getting my hair done.

Are you ready for this?

2009-11-30T14:14:00.000-06:00

I can't imagine having any more news than I do right now. November has been quite a month!

On the 18th it was Aaron and I's one year anniversary! He sent me a beautiful carribbean bouquet, and we both ordered chinese food for the other and ate it together on Skype. I think we talked for six hours that night. Probably our last real celebration of the 18th ♥.

I also had a surprise bridal shower thrown by my maid of honor, Christina! My sister Jessica tricked me into going shoppipng with her so they could get everything set up, and I came home to a bunch of my friends and a very purple apartment! We played games, ate great food, and had a lot of fun. It was a day that I've been looking forward to for a long time.

Then, of course, Thanksgiving break! I was only home for six days so we packed them full of family, wedding planning, and love. I flew into Chicago on Monday night and drove home with one of my best friends, Alyssa, who was on the same flight as me! Aaron was waiting at my house with my parents so I had quite a reception. It was definitely worth the wait.

On Tuesday I got my hair dyed for the wedding and went decoration shopping with my mom. The best part of Tuesday was getting a big surprise from my sister Jessica; SHE'S PREGNANT!! I really wanted her to be pregnant at my wedding to continue the family tradition of a marriage and a pregnancy coinciding.

Aaron and I ended the night seeing New Moon together. Words cannot describe it. I saw it the weekend it came out with my roommate Beth, but it was hard to wait three days to see it again! Aaron doesn't quite understand my infatuation, but he is a good sport about it. He does refuse to own the Twilight board game, however, which is a crying shame.

Aaron only had to work a half-day on Wednesday, so we went to a matinee with my dad to see "The Blind Side." Words cannot describe my dad's feelings about this story. He read the book it is based on three times, saw the movie opening night, and wanted to take us to see it the next week. He uses this story in his high council talks, at every family dinner, and probably dreams about it. If you don't know about Michael Oher, then you don't know Gary Bucey. It was fun to see it with him and he bought lots of popcorn!

My niece Alyssa slept over on Wednesday night and begged me to share a bed with her, so my Thursday morning started very early. At 5:30am she said "Amy! I'm really excited to eat the turkey cookies I made yesterday!" She went with me to pick up Aaron and didn't want to go back home because Aaron's apartment was so fun. She's excited for us to babysit her there once we're married. When we got back we watched the parade, snacked, and worked on a 1,000 piece puzzle of Cinderella. Alyssa was driving Aaron crazy messing up the pieces so we got out a little 100 piece puzzle of David & Goliath for her to do, but it ended up entertaining my dad for the rest of the day instead.

We had dinner with Aaron's friend from work, the sister missionaries, and my brother-in-law Bobby and two of his daughters, since my sister Holly and their daughter Reese were sick with the flu at home. It was quite the feast! The rest of the day was football watching and Black Friday shopping planning, even though we didn't end up going.

On Friday my bridesmaid and best friend Michelle threw me another bridal shower! It was really nice to have Holly and my mom there with me. We had a chocolate fountain which is my favorite! Aaron came for the last 15 minutes and we played a newlywed game and failed miserably! How was I supposed to know that if he was a super hero and could choose any power he would choose to have unlimited brain power!?

Saturday was our day in Chicago. Aaron, my parents and I drove up early and were at the temple by 11:00am. We had an appointment for the 1:00pm endowment session but there was a lot to do before then! I got to wear the dress I am going to be married in, and it was just really special for us all to be there together. it was a really wonderful experience.

Afterwards we went to Steak 'N Shake for dinner, then they dropped me off at the Chicago airport to come home. It went by so fast that it was really hard to leave, but it was very comforting to know that I would be coming back in only 16 days, and this time for good! Now I'm down to 15 days until I'm back in Illinois, and 30 days until the wedding! Life really is happening.

Little fact :)

2009-11-04T12:17:00.000-06:00

I realized late Sunday night that November 1st sounded important. I started thinking back to where I was last year at this time, and the funniest thing came to mind. November 1st was the day that I publically admitted to liking Aaron :).

I know that sounds pretty silly, but it was a long road to get there. I was sure I would never see him other than Christmas break so when I went back to school I had no thoughts of us even being good friends. Aaron and I ended up texting all of the time, and every last one of my friends told me that I was secretly in love with him! I denied it every single day.

On the night of November 1st last year I opened my bedroom door where my roommate Christina was studying on her bed, and I said "I like Aaron" and then I closed the door and waited in our study for her to come running out after me to question me about it. Nothing happened. I thought that maybe she hadn't heard me, so I opened the door again and she was still sitting on her bed studying. I asked her, "Did you hear me!?" and she looked up at me confused and said, "Oh I'm sorry- was that supposed to be news?"

That was a good day. I like where we are much better this year, though ♥.

Christina ♥

2009-10-29T11:00:00.008-05:00

Yesterday was my best friend Christina's 21st birthday! We had been planning on going to the haunted forest, but with the weather forcast we decided to go to a movie instead. Christy got lots of flowers, helium balloons, a HUGE monkey, a brownie cake, peeps, a CD, and more from friends and family (can you tell she is loved?) so our apartment looked great! Beth & I decorated the apartment with streamers and balloons, and we got her a dress from Down East with a matching cami and earrings. Lots of friends were there to sing happy birthday.

When Beth and I were writing her card we started thinking about time in lots of ways. I have been there for Christy's birthday as her roommate since her 18th birthday, and this is the last! Eighteen seems so long ago, and we were so different back then. Almost crazier to think about is where we will all be next year. Beth will be about to graduate, I will be married doing who knows what as a job, and Christina has every option in the world! That's a little scary, but mostly exciting. I'm really excited about what is coming in our lives in the next year. It's going to be a big one.

Happy birthday Christy!

Mid-Semester Vacation

2009-10-24T23:33:00.005-05:00

Mmm- life is sweet. On Tuesday night I arrived back in Utah after a five day visit home in Illinois with Aaron and my family. My life minus school plus Aaron? It really can't get much better than that.

I had these travel plans since the beginning of September and had been planning on surprising Aaron. A week and a few days before I was to fly home, it just started getting really hard and we both knew that we just needed to see each other, so Aaron started taking matters into his own hands and wanted to book a flight for me the weekend before I was already coming home! The surprise was ruined in order to stop him, but I think it was for the best, because then he had something to look forward to as I was looking forward to it.

Aaron and I went hiking on a perfect fall day at Starved Rock, went bowling, played $5.00 worth of DDR at the bowling alley, went to the movies, went to the library, played games, spent time with my family, went to church, went out to eat, went shopping, and just had a blast. It's so wonderful having my best friend who I can always count on and get to do everything with. He even showed me his fossils and sent one home with me for my roommate Christina :).

I thought being back at school would be extra hard, but I feel wonderful. I got just the boost I needed, and now we're only 30 days from Thanksgiving break! In the four days since I've been home, I feel like I have done everything within my control for the wedding. I have more appointments set than the president, I swear! Today I bought a dress to wear to the rehearsal dinner and that was just the icing on the cake. I can't wait to be a bride.

We are so thankful to our angels who have made this possible.

My New Umbrella

2009-10-14T16:29:00.003-05:00

Last month I told Aaron that when we get married I want to get a very fancy, stylish umbrella. I've always wanted one, but being at college and moving around and coming home so often just makes it impractical, but when we're married I'll finally be staying put! He started sending me websites that sell fashion umbrellas and asking me what my favorites were. I couldn't believe that he paid so much attention to my little passing comment. I told him a pretty blue and white one was my favorite, and he said maybe I would get it for Christmas if I was very good.

Yesterday I came home to a very odd shaped package with my name on it! My umbrella! What a surprise. I absolutely love it and there was a 50% chance of rain today so I took it to campus with me. I am just hoping for a good rain now :).

Thank you Aaron!

The Wedding Post

2009-10-10T19:39:00.008-05:00

My sister Jessica flew to Illinois this week and let me have her car while she was gone. I came to find that a bride-to-be with a car is like wedding planning on steroids! I am really excited about everything that has been finished and planned, so I just wanted to share my news! Granted not all of these things have been finished in the past week, but here is an all-inclusive update for anyone willing to suffer through it :).

First of all, I got my wedding invitation in the mail yesterday! I had seen an electronic version but never the real thing. I really like how they turned out, and have been so happy to hear from many friends already that they have received it in the mail! Having an actual invitation just makes it seem so much more official. People are being invited to the biggest party of my life!

The next biggest news is that I found Bridesmaid dresses! The plan was that my mom was going to make them, but my sister Jessica and I spotted these dresses on clearance in a little shop in Spanish Fork and we just couldn't resist them! This is Christy (the Maid of Honor) modeling it for us, and then a picture of me showing off the neck line (which was our favorite part). We're going to take a few steps to "formalize" it, like getting a thicker, longer, facier ribbon to tie around the waist, and making a tulle skirt underneath the dress to poof it out, and add some texture along the bottom. We bought earrings to match, too!

While on the topic of dresses, this afternoon I went to the mall and bought the dresses for our five sweet little nieces. The dresses are so darling, I just can't wait to see the little girls in them! It was fun because Annie and Alyssa are the same size, and so are Reese and Rachel, so we are name and size coordinated! I hope they are all little friends. Here is a picture of all of the dresses and then one of the back. The flash made the dresses look a lighter color than they are, so don't worry, they'll match alright!

The last dress I bought this week was my dress for the temple. I got to go with my sister Jessica to buy it and it was a really sweet sister experience for us. The Distribution Center gives half-off for first time owners, so I got a great deal on a very sweet dress. It's nice to know that I finally have the dress I will actually be getting married in.

Another things off the list are my wedding shoes. I got these white heels at the mall, and I just love the gold on the inside. I think they look very classy!

I received my long white gloves in the mail this week as well, that I mentioned in a previous post. So, the gloves I actually got don't look a thing like the picture, but I luckily like them much better! They are fingerless long white gloves with lace and pearls at the top, which should match my dress very well. I am definitely bringing everything home with me on Thursday so I can try the whole ensemble on together!

I have been thinking a lot about how I want my hair to be done fo the wedding, and I think that I have decided on this for the FRONT:

and this for the BACK:

I want to get little pearls for the back so it looks like the buttons that go up the back of my dress. Exciting!

When I go home next week I am going to let Aaron try on his ring before I get it engraved to make sure it fits and it is what he wants. I can't wait until he can have his ring just to wear every day like I get to have mine.

We also picked the first dance songs, after much deliberating. My dad and I are going to be dancing to "I Loved Her First" by Heartland, and Aaron and I are going to be dancing to "That's All" sung by Michael Buble. I can't wait to dance at my wedding in my big dress and my fancy gloves and my beautiful hair and my handsome husband. Clark is going to be singing at the wedding, but we haven't picked a song yet! We have it narrowed down to a few really good ones though, so I am excited to hear what he chooses. That will be a very special moment.

Aaron and I have a wedding website-

mywedding.com/aaronandamyknowlton

which isn't updated as much as this blog, but it has fun things like a photo album, wedding details, and where we are registered. We are so going to get married ♥.

Taking it to the next level

2009-10-06T19:46:00.005-05:00

When I was growing up, my sister Melanie always had to one up us. For example, when I was really satisfied to have a nice warm mug of hot chocolate, Melanie would go to the cupboard and get marshmallows to make it even better. Or when I was happy with my quesidilla, Melanie would add sour cream. This is why Melanie is so smart and leads an enjoyable life, she recognizes simple ways to significantly improve quality of living.

Amy is very similar, she is always trying to get to the next best thing. There is a clear hierarchy in the values of different forms of communication. It goes something like this

Talking in Person > Video Chat on Skype > Talking on the Phone during the day > Talking on the phone when I am tired > Skype Chatting > Facebook Chatting > Texting >>>>> Not talking at all

As we talk, she always tries to convince me to upgrade our communication. When we are texting, she begs that we Skype chat. When we Skype chat she wants me to call or to use the webcam and when we use the webcam all we can do is talk about how much we miss each other and would rather be together in person.

I am lucky to have a girl that wants as much of me as possible. It makes me feel super appreciated. I feel like giving her those upgrades is like the marshmallows on the hot chocolate or the sour cream on quesidillas.

The Bumpbrella

2009-10-04T21:18:00.003-05:00

Aaron's newest desire. If only we could register for one! Haha. I don't think it's actually on sale yet, but once they are, no more pokey metal wires will be walking our streets on rainy days!