Buddha Belly

Ok folks...here is the belly shot you have all been asking for. This was taken last Sunday...I told you there wasn't much yet here people. I am tall and have a super long torso, so it has taken a while to start showing. I feel like I am actually starting to grow a little bit more each week now though. It wasn't until about Thanksgiving week that I started "showing" a little bit more. I am officially 23 weeks now!! Yeah.

Being pregnant has been quite an experience...a lot of aches & pains, but also really exciting when you feel the baby moving. She is quite a mover. I first started feeling her move around 18 weeks and Aaron was able to feel her move around 20 weeks. It has been really fun. We are just so excited to meet her and see what she looks like! Although the thought of being parents is quite daunting, I must say. I just can't think about it too hard, I just need to enjoy every step. I'll be better about doing updates since the belly is starting to grow now.

Go Cougs!!!

We headed down to Air Force this past weekend in Colorado Springs to watch our Cougs whoop it up!! It was a fun game to be at and watch. It was sweet to see the fighter jets fly over at the beginning of the game. It got pretty chilly while we were there, but we had a great time. This was mine and Aaron's first BYU game together even though we went to BYU during the same time for 3 years and didn't know each other yet. Then there's miss Tracie...this is 8 years later since our first football games and we are at a BYU game together again...craziness!! And we are now both with child...I just happen to be harvesting mine in my stomache at this juncture. We had a great time...and the hot dog and hot chocolate topped it all off...you can see that Aaron was still enjoying his hot dog in this picture!

On Sunday, we headed up to Loveland for our sweet niece Lorene's 6th birthday party. These are the two newest additions to the Powell clan....Izzy on the left (9 weeks old) and Isabelle (6 days old)...can you believe that my sis-in-law Kristen looks so great after just having a child?!! Soon enough there will be another baby girl to add to the bunch; our little girl will be the 12th Powell cousin...5 boys and 7 girls.

BIG NEWS!!!

So...the verdict is in...we are having a little girl!!! We are so excited! I'm not gonna lie, I have wanted a girl all along, and not for any other reason than they are so fun and cute to dress!! My mom was in town this past weekend, so it was fun for her to be there for the ulstrasound. It was quite a process and I had to do all these crazy maneuvers to get the little one to move around enough to find out that she was a girl. It took almost 45 minutes to find out and the process included...rolling side to side a million times, eating 4 starburst in a row really quickly to get my blood sugar up, drink lots of water to fill up my bladder, do some stomache crunches, and put an ice pack on my stomache!! But, in the end...alas it is a little girl! And to make my mom a little happier, Shane and Jen found out a few days earlier that they are having a little girl as well!! I think on both the Powell and Tobiasson side there has been a male domination, so us girls are finally taking over!!

Enjoying the Sunshine...what we have left of it!

Aaron and I had a fabulous weekend last weekend by default actually. We had looked up a hike that we wanted to go on and ended up chatting so much on the way there that we missed taking an important freeway off ramp. Well..it turned out great because we ended up at a place called Heritage Square outside of Golden, CO. Aaron remembered that they have alpine slides there.

Well, we show up to this place and it was slightly creepy, looked like it was a happening little amusement park about 20 years ago, and had scary carnies running small rides for kids. We won't mention that we bought lunch there and it was a big mistake. I'm not really supposed to have hot dogs right now being pregnant and I thought, well we're at this little place and what's better than fair food, right? Once we got our hot dogs we realized it was a grave mistake and I had to eat it because I was starving. We both didn't feel that great afterwards but we are doing ok. Let's just say that I've never seen a hot dog that color...yikes!

Anyway, I had heard about alpine slides all the time living in Utah, but I don't think I had ever riden one. We took the plunge down the mountain and it was so fun. Aaron even took video footage of the ride down...he's pretty proud of it. At the end of the clip you can see the slightly growing Robyn belly too!

After we left Heritage Square we went for a drive up in the mountains. We pulled off the road where we could walk next to the river. It was a beautiful day, so we just planned on going on a nice little jaunt next to the river. By then end of our "walk" we had soaked our shoes trying to cross the river on dry rocks...you know how well and how long that ever works! Aaron was a little sad because he was wearing his brand new running shoes...sad. Not only had we successfully crossed the river, wet or not, we got to a hang up when there were no more rocks to walk along the river and we had to do a bit of light rock climbing (you can see above Aaron's head in the picture). Aaron just wanted to climb over it to check it out and figured I would just wait for him. Well, not me...pregnant or not I did some climbing and was right by his side. It was fine on the way there when our shoes were still pretty dry, but then trying to cross back with soaking wet shoes was a little frightening. I was thinking of reading the headlines..."Pregnant lady falling while trying to rock climb with no ropes and wet shoes!" Really smart for a gal who works at a hospital for people who have had brain/spinal cord injuries. I guess I need to start thinking about being a little safer these days now that I'm prego!

No April Fools!!

Well folks, this is no april fools...this is what I will be looking like in April!! I have joined the prego club!! I am due April 10th! We are really excited and can't wait to find out what it is. Don't worry...I don't look like this, Tracie and I were maternity clothes shopping and I strapped on the crazy belly thing to see what the clothes would really look like. It was a little crazy to see. I'm not really "showing" yet, but I'm already feeling fat. Anyway, we are really excited about having a little one, and I'm even more excited for the day when I don't feel nauseous and have a headache!! The fun thing is that my brother Shane's wife is pregnant as well and her due date is April 7th! You can imagine that my mom is beside herself. So...I will keep everyone posted on how it goes!

Picture Update Time!

Well...I wanted to add a few pics that I can't add from Aaron's computer. I know it has been 2 months since we last posted...so hear goes the crazy summarized picture diary of the last 2 months of our life.

First...in the beginning of June I went to Boston for a girls' trip and met up with my mom, Aunt Shirley, my cousin Jennifer, and my good friend Emily.

June was also the month that our friends Erin and Ryan came to visit and live with the Wares for a month. And we had some other fun visitors during that time...Bri and Dave, Jenna and Drew, and Stephanie and Taylor Cox. Fun times in the summer.Then, on July 24th...we became Aunt Robyn and Uncle Aaron to the cutest little blonde haired asian girl on earth (well...not really blonde, but what's wrong with hoping right?!). Not that I'm a biased Aunt or something, but she has to be the cutest thing on earth. Sorry, this is the brand new (10 hours old pic).

Troy teaching Aaron how to hold a newborn...precious picture moment!

I did not attend an event the night before the 4th book of the Twilight series came out to celebrate with 15 other ladies...it's pretty bad when the little teenagers also in attendance asked if we are "Twilight Moms". Um...I guess we don't fit in with the 16 year old crowd, especially since about half the group we went with are mothers!! We embrace our love of Edward..sorry honey. And we are also not wearing matching t-shirts! We are nerds, its true.

Last, but absolutely not least we ran into some old friends of mine from Salt Lake at another friends wedding, Arianne! She looked absolutely beautiful..even though it was so crazy I wasn't even able to sneak a picture of her. We got to see the Petersons though and Max and Jayme, so we had a great time.

Summer Scorcher

Robyn made me write a blog entry for once because our friend Tracie told her that she likes hearing from a guy's perspective once in a while, so here goes nothing. Thanks a lot Tracie! jk. This summer has been abnormally hot for Denver. I can't even think of the last time that it was under 90 degrees or when it rained. We've been able to do quite a few fun things in the past two months. Robyn was the big boss at girls camp and I was able to spend the last night there. She had a good time with the girls, but more than anything was just relieved that it went okay and that all of the preparation and stress was finally over. However that relief did not last more than 24 hours. She must have impressed the bishop so much that the next day he called her as the young women's president!



Speaking of Robyn's sweet skills, she was just promoted to Assistant Supervisor at Craig Hospital over the occupational therapists in the brain injury department. She was by far the least experienced candidate for the position, so I was quite impressed (but not surprised) that she was selected. Between having the new position, new calling, and helping with a lot of baby showers, she has been busy to say the least. I try to help her where I can, however I am much busier than I'd like to be with my own job.



Yesterday my brother and I went tubing down the Boulder Creek. That should be a requirement for anyone living not too far from Denver or Boulder. I know it's not the most wild river ever, but it has enough rapids and drops to get your heart going at times (mostly because you are afraid the huge sharp rocks beneath you are going to peel a layer off your bum). Somehow my hand got under the tube and got a good scrape. The water level is lower than average right now, which makes the river slower, yet a little scarier at times because of all of the rocks that poke out everywhere.



I went tubing and rope swinging a few weeks ago with the scouts in our ward (I am in the young men's presidency). Some of these kids hadn't ever been on a boat, yet alone been in water that is over their head. Our friend Tyler has a lake that his family owns and has exclusive rights to (I admit, I'm a little jealous). He took us out on his boat and did some sweet tubing action. The big question- can you not smile while tubing? When the tubes get whipping around a bend and you hit some crazy waves, it's impossible to not laugh your head off. Of course laughing makes it even harder to hold on, which makes it even funnier because you are hanging on by a thread, about to do flips on the surface of the water once your last finger can't hold on anymore. I love wakeboarding and skiing, but I think I may actually have more fun doing some extreme tubing. Anyone agree?

The rope swing was equally as fun. Only one of the scouts had the guts to try it. The rest didn't want to, besides we didn't trust their safety on it. The rope was tied to a huge wood pole and the ladder to get up to the top must was built far too long ago. Every step creaked as if the board was going to rip through the metal screws. The top was super wobbly and it suddenly looked much further down than it did looking up at the thing. Tyler set the standard by climbing to the very top ladder step. Once I saw that, of course Bill (a priest) and I had to try it as well. There were no rails to hold onto, so we just had to rely on our own balance. The top of the pole was extremely high, which made the rope super long, which in turn made for a ton of momentum while swinging down into the water. There was a good gap between the top of the rope swing and the water, which made it that much more nerve racking. Once letting go of the rope, the momentum would chuck us a little higher and about 20 feet further. Once we tried it, we were hooked and went for about another hour. It makes me want to find a higher and crazier rope swing, but I doubt there are any in this area. I saw some huge ones on youtube that I can only dream of doing. I couldn't stop perseverating about the rope swing for the next few days. There are some pictures of it below.

Robyn has done a few other big things this summer, but I didn't go and couldn't give you any good details. I'll leave the next blog for Robyn so that she could talk about them. So I wrote my first blog, I'm so proud of myself. Don't plan on my writing one for quite some time- unless I'm given an encore by several people. jk.

Three day weekends!

What would we do without 3 day weekends. It was so nice to have an extra day off...it makes such a difference. We planned on going camping that friday night but in light of the recent tornadoes just north of denver we had a change of plans. The campground we were planning to go to had even been hit by one and still had a tornado watch that night we were going to go. Now, let's talk about this folks...I ask my husband if it's safe to go camping in the mountains in a tent when we just had a tornado, especially since the only person that died here was camping. And...of course he and his brother were all for it until they went up there and were finally told it wasn't a good idea. Crazy!!

Anyway, instead the whole Powell clan got together and hung out friday and saturday. We all met up in Estes Park on Saturday and it was fabulous. I love that place. It is a beautiful area up in the mountains that has the most quaint mountain feel that makes you just feel at home. Here is a little glimpse of the craziness that was the Powell family with all 5 brothers and their wives and all the kiddos...9 and 2 (1/2s on the way). Anyway, we had a great time hanging out with everyone.

On Monday we went with our friends Ben and Tarin to Boulder...another one of my favorite places. I have to take every single person that comes to visit me here to Boulder because it is also another gem. We planned on going to a festival/fair but ended up going up and down Pearl Street, the major street in Boulder with lots of shops and street performers. Unfortunately it was raining like crazy so we got out of the rain when we found our new favorite place...Powell's Sweet Shop! Great name huh?! We went in just to look around and found that by the end the four of us had found all the candies, gums, and chocolates that reminded us of our childhood...big league chew, blow pops, and jelly hamburgers anyone!!! We loved every second of it and the lady even gave us some Powell stickers since it is our namesake. Gotta love acting like kids sometimes.

Happy Birthday to Me!!

First of all folks, are you noticing how much I am posting tonight. You should be so proud Tracie and Troy. Anyway, saturday was my b-day and I had a great day. We went out to dinner with some family and friends to the best Italian Buffet you could imagine...Cinzetti's. It's so good that I have to call my brother in Vegas and brag every time I get to go there. After we stuffed ourselves beyond belief, all of us headed back to our place and had some cake, cupcakes, and a good time.

I'm not gonna lie...I was really nervous thinking that 25+ people were going to be hanging out in our 2 bedroom apt. but it worked out great and we had a fabulous time. It's always so funny on my birthday...I almost forget about getting great presents for your birthday...and I totally scored! My favorite (besides my hubby's present of course) was this cute robot that my nephew Jake made with some serious TLC. He put this funny face on it and we dually named it Jakie Jr (our only kid for now). You have to love how creative kids are.

College Days

My computer was freaking out and I wasn't able to get this pic in. I was able to go out to dinner with Kirsten and Theresa from freshman year while I was in Seattle. It was great to catch up. In the pick is Theresa, Kirsten's and her 4th child Samantha! Yikes, don't I feel a little behind. Anyway, it was great to see them and chat about old times and friends.

I'm loving Seattle

So, I headed to a Brain Injury Conference in Seattle last week. I loved it there! I was able to do a lot of sight seeing around the city after the conference was over every night. It has such a great vibe there. It didn't hurt that I stayed in a fabulous hotel right downtown just up the street from the Pikes Place Market and a lot of shopping! Yeah. One day I even did a 3 hour walk around the city by myself and was loving it. Can we say that there is literally a starbucks on every block...a little ridiculous. The weather was even great the entire time I was there, it didn't rain at all! Anyway here is a little photo gallery, you can tell that I was by myself because they are only a few shots with people in it, but hopefully you can still enjoy.

Gotta love the fresh farmer's market!

I am Not Crafty...I need some help!

Ok ladies and gents...So I was called as the Young Women's Camp Director...wow! Let's just say I'm a little nervous about it. When I think of the camp directors I think of 40 year old mothers who have a lot of experience with cooking, kids, crafts, etc. Yikes, I'm just a young gal and freaked out about having to run camp on my own. We actually have a very interesting mix of girls in our ward (almost like an inner city ward with interesting backgrounds), so it will be very different from the way I grew up , but it will be really fun. We will be able to go camping near Estes Park, which is a beautiful place up in the mountains about an hour away from Denver.

So here is where I need some help folks...I am not crafty!! I almost have a thing against small nick nacks, crafts, and things. I know I need to enjoy it more, and need to expand my horizons. So, if anyone out there has some great/fun craft ideas that teenage girls would like to do, good easy camp food ideas, etc please please let me know! It would help a sister out a lot. Thank you. You know how they say that anything that doesn't kill you will make you stronger....this is my test to see if I can succumb and do crafts! Ahhh! Anyway, thanks for your help everyone!

What we've been up to...

I know, I know I'm fired. I haven't posted in a month or so. It's funny too, because I was talking to my friend Tarin and we say how hard it is for us to post but then we hate it when other people don't update their blog. Anyway, so here I am making my piece and giving a small synopsis of what we've been up to in the last month.

We went with Dave and Caroline to a fabulous cabin up in Breckenridge. Dave's boss owns it and loves for people to come up and use it, so we were happy to help them out with that. The boys went out that Saturday and went snowboarding while Caroline and I hung out in the cabin all day. We loved it. She is pregnant and couldn't go snowboarding, and well, I like being lazy in a beautiful cabin with great scenary and watching movies all day!

This is about as much snow as I got during the trip...this was standing on the back deck looking right at the mountains. (Right below us is a hot tub that the boys actually went in to the night before when it was snowing like crazy and freezing! Aaron even lost his slipper down there and found it the next morning all frozen...boys will be boys)

Aaron's big day....On March 18th Aaron had his 28th b-day and we celebrated with his (and my) favorite cake...rainbow chip cake and icing. We used to eat this stuff with a spoon in college (we meaning Erin and I). Anyway, we went to Boondocks that night and a few of his bros met up to try their hand at the batting cages. Let's just say that there was only one time that Aaron totally overswung, somehow threw the bat across the entire cage and fell on the ground. We don't know exactly what happened but it was pretty freaking hilarious. Oops, was I supposed to put that in the blog?! Love you babe.

Let's see...other than that I was actually able to go snowboarding as well. I am able to get this pass through work to go to any mountain for free on 4 different days. I am definitely a novice, but here's a little pic of me going off a jump by the end of the day. No big deal.

Yeah right, I wish that was me! Ok, so I think I officially went down the run 4 times, I was practicing toe side the whole time so I did several really big bails and countless falls. By the end of the day (well my snow day) I was happy to sit in the lodge and take a load off while Aaron and his bros finished out the day. I know Aaron wants a snowboarding wife, but I think he's come to terms with the fact that I might go maybe a couple times a year and try to enjoy it.

Lastly, I have been trying my hand at a little decorating around our place. It's been weird to think about having it cute but not too girly since I live with a boy now. Anyway, I found this fabulous bed set at Target and found these great pictures to go with it. I really do love decorating, but it's so hard to put everything together and make it look right. I think I need Kristin Rose to come out and decorate my place.

Anyway, hope you all enjoyed the update blog, I will try to not be such a slacker in the future, but I can't make any promises.

Quite the Gala

Last week I got the opportunity to go to a really fancy fundraising gala for work. A couple of us in the office got tickets last minute to the $500 a plate dinner for our hospital. I work at a non profit hospital, Craig Hospital, that specializes in working with people with spinal cord and brain injuries. It was so crazy to be at the fancy party/gala with people in their evening gowns and fancy suits. During the cocktail hour they were serving tons of drinks and appetizers and there was even an ice sculpture that said Craig on it that they would pour martinis through. Let's just say I was a little dissapointed that they couldn't pour diet pepsi through it. Bummer! Here are the lovely OT's and the chaplain at our table...it was in the very back of course. I liked it that way though because during the auction I didn't have to be nervous that they might think I was bidding on the 25,000 pin ball machine! That's right, the affluent people of Denver were bidding at ridiculous prices for items and all the proceeds went to the hospital.

There was a program to honor those who had come to our hospital from being hurt in the war...2 men with spinal cord injuries and 1 with a brain injury. There was a special program for them and they were all honored with the Christopher Reeves award. It was truly a touching moment that made me so grateful to work at such an amazing hospital (and I'm not gonna lie, it made me cry a little bit). I work specifically with patients who have had brain injuries and are often just coming out of comas. Everyday is truly amazing to see how these people are able to recovery from such incredible injuries. It definitely makes you realize how precious life really is. It's great though to see people living again.

How many Powells?!

So, a couple weekends ago Brent's family (Aaron's brother) came down and we met them at the Denver Art Museum. It was such a unique building in the heart of downtown. Of course with art there were some really cool paintings and sculptures and then there were some things that I thought a kindergarten class could have put together. I'm sure this is bad for me to say, but it's the truth.

Well, afterwards 2 of Aaron's other brothers were planning to come down with their kids and we were all going to watch a movie at our apartment clubhouse. There is a really sweet movie room with a bunch of couches and love sacs. His brother Dave had rented it out for the night (he also lives at the same apt. complex with his wife). Anyway, about a half hour before everyone showed up Dave got a call that they wouldn't be able to rent out the clubhouse to us due to some rule changes.

So, Dave and Caroline have a one bedroom smaller apt. and we have a 2 bedroom apt that is a bit bigger, so what do we do....head to Little Caesars and buy them out of their hot and ready pizzas and have the whole clan in our apt. It was a pretty great experience with 6 kids and 8 adults hanging out in our little apt. It took about 3 minutes for one of the kids to spill something and it just continued thereafter. It was definitely an eye opening experience to the world of kids! We had a great time though with everyone and somehow made room for us all to watch the movie. Here's a pic of the whole clan hanging in our front room. Gotta love family!

A revision...much better

So, I loved the length of the new cut, but hated the cut itself! I asked for some sassy layers and for a cute A-line and in the back. Well, it just looked like this crazy straight bob thing with no sass, no layers. So, I went yet again, with a little assistance from Tracie Ware, and got it cut for the second time in a week. And...it is so much better, a little shorter and I love it even more! I have to say I've never dealt with not being able to put my hair in a pony tail...it's liberating though not to have all that hair!! So, here are some updated pics.

Miracles do Occur

So, for those of you who have known me for any amount of time know that I have long blonde hair. It has been this way since I've been a little girl. I have always dreamed of having this cute little cut but have NEVER had the guts to do something about it because I love my long hair. Well, I finally got the gumption to do it once and for all and I LOVE IT! There is a little touching up here and there that I want done, but all in all I like the length and the cut. Prior to cutting it they measured it to see if I could donate to Locks of Love but I missed the mark by a couple inches....they cut 8 1/2 inches off and you have to have 10 inches to donate. Well, anyway I had to post this historic moment because even my friend Tracey K. Tanner had to call and see if I really went through with it since I've been threatening to do it for quite some time.

Before...(I wanted to put this picture in because this was at my brother Shane's wedding last week with from the left my niece Jamie, sister-in-law Melanie, my new sister-in-law/his beautiful bride Jen, her daughter Audrey, me and my niece Sarah)

After...