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.