The Gender Reveal

We are soooo excited to announce that we are having a BOY! These kicks were the very first purchase for our little monster. More importantly, our little dude can keep his nick-name for now which is Pete. After he's born he'll get a normal name, but for now we call him Pete.

I think it's weird when people overload on belly pics during pregnancy...just not my thing. But due to popular demand, (and since I now live so far from friends and family) I will post a few as I start getting fat. Here I am at 20 weeks getting ready to head to the gym. Belly is just barely starting to poke out.

This is the day we found out that Pete is a boy. 21 weeks. This is 2 weeks ago, and my belly has doubled since then!

In-Law Drama?

Nope, no in-law drama for us! I have been immensely blessed by marrying into such an incredible family. From day one I have been treated like one of the daughters and I have always gotten along with everyone so well. I definitely count my blessings when I hear horror in-law stories because I don't have any stories of my own. It also goes vice versa because Bryan gets along really well with my family (and my family has learned to disregard his frequent, rude comments). Anyway, we were privileged a few weeks ago with having Bryan's parents come stay with us! We gave them our bedroom and Bryan and I bunked on the living room futon, and we all were so happy to share our little bathroom for the week! The first few days we rented a car and drove up to Newport, Rhode Island and stayed in a nice little hotel. We had a great time driving around and did tours of some of the incredible mansions. I love this first pic of the shoreline with a few of the mansions.

Obsessed with this entry gate! Someday if you come to our house, you will enter through something like this...

Ok, I guess this house will do for our future home...better pop out some kids to fill it first!

The cute little restaurant we ate at right on the ocean. Great seafood!

The rest of the week was spent in NYC going to broadway shows, enjoying the opera, caught a Mets game, strolled through Central Park, ate some great food, did some shopping, and loved hanging out. Thanks for coming to visit us!

Dave Matthews Perkinson

Kinda a catchy name, right? We love Dave Matthews Band so much we probably would be temped to name our baby after him! (IF the baby is a boy that is...I'll let you know next week!)

Bry has always been a big fan and he got me hooked when we started dating. We have now seen Dave in concert 4 times together! If you haven't seen him in concert, you should. Best concert you will ever go to. One day we will make it to see him at Red Rocks or The Gorge or somewhere cool like that. Dave is now doing his Caravan tour and made a stop here in NYC! He decided to come the same weekend Hurricane Irene decided to come, so we got to see him Friday night on Governor's Island, but then Sat and Sun night's concerts got cancelled. Lucky for us, we only bought tickets for Friday night. And lucky for us, he came back 3 weeks later and did another weekend concert on Randall's Island! 2 Dave concerts in one month! Amazing. Even Pete (fetus in my belly) loved Dave. After the first concert, we got home at about 3am and as I was laying in the tub I felt Pete move for the first time! Definitely a sign that he loved the concert. (I keep saying that, and hope he really wasn't squirming because I inhaled too much weed).

Anyway, here are some pics I got. Some of them are pretty crappy because they were taken on my phone.

Getting ready for the concert to start.

I tried to upload a couple videos, but after leaving it to load for 2 hours I got impatient and cancelled it. Sorry!

Labor Day in AZ

As much as I am loving it here in NYC, I was sooo excited to go home for Labor Day! Lots of events going on! We had such a great time! I got to reunite with some great friends and family members, meet Sarah's fiancé, Mike for the first time, see my brother tear it up in his first high school football game, play with my niece and nephew, lots of swimming and bbq, and best of all just chill with the fam! Here are a few pics from the weekend.

Baby Hayden (my niece) in her cutest little swimsuit...all ready for the pool!

Rex loved his ride with Grandpa on the ice chest after Jason's football game! I couldn't get enough of these kids while I was there!

A little family trip to the bowling alley! First time I met Mike (on the right), Sarah's fiancé. Typical picture, everyone smiling and me being stupid, showing off Pete (did I mention on here that I'm pregnant yet? More details on that to come. But yes, for now we call my belly Pete).

I snuck Rex up the slide (since he wasn't tall enough) and he LOVED it! The nice lady let me take him a few more times.

My cute sister, Gretchen. (Ok, her real name is Alysha, but I call her Gretchen)

Playing at Max and Kinzi's house with Hayden!

Septmeber 11th

On Saturday afternoon we decided to go walk around Ground Zero in honor of Sept. 11th the next day. We had a very humbling experience. Of course, this day is celebrated all over the country, but it felt so much more REAL actually being here in NYC and walking down the somber streets with those that lost loved ones. Church yesterday was amazing. The speakers were great and the music was incredible. One of the many benefits of living here is that there are so many talented and brilliant people! One chick from the ward stood up without the mic and busted out a gorgeous opera song, then the choir got up and sang one of my favorite songs, "Death Shall Not Destroy My Comfort" and it seriously brought tears! Bishop got up and talked about how Sept. 11th 10 years ago was his second day on the job and he was just down the street from the towers. So many people here experienced the tragedy first hand. I can't even imagine looking up and seeing the planes crash into those incredible buildings with my own eyes! God Bless America!

Random thoughts from NY

The past month has been so much fun and we couldn't be happier! We have been in our apartment for 3 weeks now and we just love it. Bryan went straight to work and has been pretty busy. As for myself, I am still learning the ways of the city and totally enjoying myself. Bry calls it laziness and I call it recouping from the years of hard work that I put in to get him through school. (Also doing all those things that I never had time for when I was working full time) :) Sooner than later I am going to have to find some kind of job to help pay for the freaking expensive groceries. We have already done some very fun things, but I have been slacking in the photography department, so here are some of the pics I have taken in the last few weeks.

I have already discovered some local favorites of mine. Here is one...Rita's! Pick your flavor of italian ice and blend it with vanilla custard and you have pure heaven. I am addicted. There are so many good places to eat here, when I come back to AZ for Christmas I will be one fat rolly polly, but perfectly content.

We love Puerto Rican food! One of the first things we did when we got here was look up PR restaurants. Here is one that we found and it didn't disappoint!

Mmmm, my pernil con arroz y habichuelas, of course with a side of tostones (my favorite!). Seriously makes my mouth water just thinking about this.

Here is Bry's catfish meal, I forgot the name of it in Spanish.

One day we went wandering up in The Bronx...

A few weekends ago we took the ferry to Staten Island to visit some friends that live out there. Here is Ms. Liberty on the ride back to Manhattan.

We had a blast with our friends, Catlin and Joseph Gedge, but of course I didn't get any good pics. Here is Bry going crazy with their two kids in the stroller.

The view from Bry's boss' apartment. Beautiful!

We had to make a decision when we moved out here, and of course we were not about to become Yankee fans...so we are Mets fans! We have made it out to 2 games already. We could go to a baseball game every night if it were up to us (except it takes forever to get out there).

These are 2 quick pics I snapped before we moved into our apartment. We are still waiting on a few pieces of furniture, then I will post more pics!

Starting A New Chapter...together.

We made it to NYC and all is well! As I walk around I keep asking myself...is this really my new home?? It is all so foreign to me still. Where are all my usual hot spots that I love in Mesa? This is definitely a new way of life for us. But we are sooo excited! We found an apartment on the Upper West side of Central Park and get to move in on Wednesday next week! As soon as we get settled and get things figured out I will be posting pics of our new place! Thanks for all the texts, emails and calls asking how we are doing. Life is good in NYC!

Puerto Rico!

The last few months have been so exciting for us! Bryan graduated from law school in December and went straight into studying for the BAR exam. He took the bar in February, and 2 days later we were on a plane headed for Puerto Rico! We literally took 300 pics in the 10 days we were there, but I don't have a year to post them all, so here are some of the favs. If you wanna see more, check out my facebook page! We had an absolute blast and are considering moving to Puerto Rico (50% joking, but Bryan did send his resume to a couple law firms down there).

The LAST day we were there I found my Dr. Pepper at a gas station!

Here is Bry at one of his old apartments from the mission

We did a tour of the camuy caves.

Good morning! One of the nights we were there we stayed in a little shack in the middle of the jungle (or forest...whatever). The next morning we had a visitor! Maybe because the walls didn't meet the ceiling.

Came across some kids playing some bball with this hoop...Bry had to show them what's up.

Our little shack.

A huge lake in the middle of the forest!

What's for lunch?? Marlin on a stick. Yum!!

Bry had the great idea for me to pose for this pic. Well, the wave ended up trashing me and do you see how sharp those rocks are??? I almost died.

love.

Pina Colada...extra rum please. With some mufongo for lunch.

Couldn't get enough of how BEAUTIFUL the beaches were!

Bry's near death experience... it was so windy out on those rocks. We found out later that some dude fell off the cliff at the same exact spot Bry is and was instantly killed. But it made for a great picture!!

Some new friends I made in Ponce at the Carnival

Best ice cream in the world!! We went there twice in the 1 day we were in Ponce.

Hiked to the top of a waterfall.

Zip-lining through the forest! Tarzan style but with goofy helmets.

The Andersons! A family Bry knew on the mission. Kathia cooked us an amazing dinner!

Yes, the church is true in Puerto Rico, too.

At a castle in Old San Juan...I sent him to the dungeon.

The view from our hotel in San Juan.

Ok, the only bikini pic you guys will get. This is off the island of Culebra. The snorkeling was so incredible! We spent a couple hours pretending we were as pretty as some of the fish we saw.

This is the day my hubby got fried. The knife on his leg left the best tan line ever.

Culebra. Please don't make me go home.