A New Addition (including pictures)

Our beautiful new daughter.

Mara and her new mommy.

Mara and her new dad.

Now for the story. Saturday night Christen and I decided to go for a walk. A long labor inducing walk, we did about 3 miles. It worked. At about 11 o'clock on Saturday night Christen began feeling the contractions. We waited for a couple of hours to make sure that everything was real and we headed to the hospital at 1 on Sunday morning. After being checked and hooked up to the machines, the contractions continued but labor didn't progress so Christen was given a shot of morphine in her hip and we headed home.

The pain of the contractions, although momentarily dulled, came back with a vengeance and we decided that it was time to head back to the hospital for another try. Christen was admitted at 4 o'clock, and enjoyed the beauty of the epidural. After a few more hours of labor the pushing began, and at 10:20 a bit more than 23 hours after we started, our little Mara came into the world.

Mara Jane Pierce
7 lbs 13 oz
19.5 inches

A New Addition

We had a baby. Nice, eh?

Booted

The books at the BYU bookstore are hideously overpriced. So we ordered Ian's books online, and payed less for ALL of his books, that we would have paid for ONE of his books. Naturally, I think this is a beautiful thing. However, one of those books hasn't arrived yet. I don't think they've even sent it yet. L-A-M-E.

So since we had reading in that class due tonight, (its an evening class that I'm joining in on), I checked the Provo Library. They had a copy! But when I got there, I couldn't find it. The librarians say that it probably got re-shelved in the wrong spot. ugh. So I checked the BYU library, and they have an electronic copy- however, its an older edition, and completely different.

So, in a final attempt, we decided that this morning we would go to the BYU bookstore and just read the chapter before Ian's 9 o'clock class today. Apparently, they do not allow reading of their textbooks, "but they are for sale." (side note- I've gone to Borders, and many other actual bookstores, and they have CHAIRS set out for you to read their books....not at BYU.) We explained our predicament, and his only response was, "that's the trouble with ordering online. You don't always have it when you want it. But we have it, if you need to buy it."

He ushered us out like we were criminals. I almost wanted to try to sneak in again later, just to see if he was watching for us. I think they lose a lot of money to online purchases- he seemed a little touchy about that. I bet if their prices were more reasonable, that wouldn't happen. But alas, we got booted from the BYU bookstore. One more thing to check off my bucket list.

But that doesn't really matter. I found the book anyway. At a bookstore just south of campus, that specializes in used textbooks.

Half the price of the "used book" price at the BYU bookstore. Exactly my point.

The House Guest

The Brick House has had chance to host a number of people the last few weeks. Most of them were awesome. One was not. If you are reading this, and you are wondering if you were the "unappreciated" house guest, stop wondering. The annoying guest can't read. If you are reading this and you wonder if one of your offspring was the pest, stop wondering. The guest's parents can't read either.

We had a lot of fun playing with these guests!

Pretty much, the whole family was a hoot.

And then after spending time with all of these guys at the FABULOUS family reunion
we brought home another house guest, and had just as much fun with her.
(And on the way to the airport, when Ian stopped to get her a GIGANTIC cup of pebble ice, she was ecstatic.)
(She ate the entire cup before we got to the airport. I tell you what, I think we know what we are getting Charity for Christmas!!)

So after dropping her off, we discussed how quiet things would be, since it was back down to being just the 2 3/4ths of us. But it wasn't. We had an uninvited guest.

On Tuesday night, we got woken up around 4 AM. Wednesday, it was a little closer to 2 AM. Thursday, Friday, Saturday- night after night, we heard it. The first night, apparently, Ian woke up and followed the sound, ending up empty handed. I woke up after him, and did the same thing. Because of the dream he was having, his response to me was "Don't worry, its just an electric cricket. It'll turn off."

At first it was by the door, the next night, by the window, then in the closet, and then on the top shelf of the closet. Each night, we could get the general area, but we couldn't find that dang cricket. Luckily, on Sunday morning, there was a light green colored movement on his white dress shirt. A snowy tree cricket.

WE FOUND IT!

And now, he doesn't wake us up.
The house guest, is gone.

No more work!!

My sister asked me yesterday, "So, if you don't do massage anymore, what do you DO all day?"
"Random projects and errands."
"Have you heard of Rue 21? My friend so-and-so says that they always have great sales, but only in the stores, not online. And its in Utah! This says its on....Towne Center...Blvd? If Grace and I send you money, you can go to the store and get clothes and send them up to us!"
"Sure, Nanner, I'll see if I have any errands to run out that way."
:)

So in all reality, that is what I've been doing- random projects and errands.

Speaking of projects, here's an update on the cradle! It was just sitting in the study, and I told Ian I wanted it in the bedroom, but he said he wouldn't bring it in until it looked like a bed. So, Ian put finish on it on Pioneer Day (and I hid in the bedroom away from the fumes), we used a gift card to get the mattress at babies'r'us, and I made a bumper for it, so we moved it in two nights ago!!!

I love it! Sometimes I just sit and stare at it with excitement. I can't wait to put a baby in it!!!

Ian also put in the window unit AC that we borrowed from a friend, and now I am MUCH happier! I think next time we'll have to plan the timing a little better. Note to self: no more being preggo all summer long. Its hot, hot, hot.

Ian really likes that I don't have to go to work anymore, because dinner is at DINNER time as opposed to "whatever time I get home and can get something thrown together." Not to mention the menu is a lot more exciting!

I set up basic guidelines for the weekly meals:
Mexican Monday (self-explanatory)
Italian Tuesday (ahem...again obvious)
We Cook Wednesday (we make something together)
Try-out Thursday (something new and never tried!)
Freebird Friday (date night or leftovers)
Sandwich/Salad Saturday (BLT's, hamburgers, green or pasta salads, etc)
Sweetheart Sunday (Ian cooks- I love it!)

So here are a few photos of recent meals!

The Mexican chipotle pulled pork wraps- tasty and tender!

One of the try-out Thursday meals- BBQ chicken calzone. Definitely an INSTANT favorite!

Last night's try-out was very orange indeed! Pork chops with orange sauce, potatoes with the same sauce, and oranges on the side! We thought about drinking the rest of the orange juice with it, but thought that might be over kill. Tasty though!


At any rate, things have been fun. Sometimes, like last night, we don't have the right ingredients, so we improvise. The orange sauce was supposed to have cloves in it....but at $9, we decided we'd have to get rich before having the orange sauce as it was intended. I went with cinnamon and nutmeg instead, and although it wasn't the same taste, it was tasty enough!

Thank goodness for Freebird Friday!! Tonight we're headed over to a friends for a BBQ- oh yum! I love summer!!!

Coupons!

So, a few weeks ago I decided I wanted to try the coupon thing. My upstairs neighbor showed me this super awesome website- grocerysmarts.com. It matches up the weekly sales with the coupons from the Sunday paper, as well as online coupons. So I went there, I made a shopping list, and guess what!!! I saved $43.21!!!! My very first time! Isn't that AWESOME! I can't wait until next week!

It made me happy, so I guess that's good enough for me!! I'm completely hooked now!

Yay for coupons!

Where to start....

I'm pretty sure I'm just a bad person, haha. I go a month in between posts, and then I make 2 or 3 posts in a row. Luckily, I'll be done working in a few days, so hopefully I'll be more reliable. We really do have a fun life, I'm just bad at documenting it.

This last month has been more than eventful!

Ian finished Spring Term. Ian started Summer Term. Lame lame lame. Year round school is no fun, I promise.

We both spent a week in Alaska- which was amazing. Spending time with both families was so much fun. Two birthdays in one week! We had Jamila's birthday- and that was a fun filled family extravaganza, complete with tiaras and visors. (Thanks to Patience for the photo!)

And then we had my brother Daniel's birthday- dinner, 12th Marine's black powder pie for cake, and then a movie in the theater...I love the sights and sounds of that theater room! Plus, my family is just hillarious. Always exciting- especially with Daniel back in town.

Ian made a cradle while in Alaska. I feel like the luckiest little wife ever! I mentioned that I would love to have one if he had time to make one...so he made the time to make the cradle so that I'd be happy. Thanks to everyone for letting him spend time in the shop, and thanks to mom and dad for the wood that he used! Most of all though, thanks to that hubby of mine that made a cradle for us to use with all of our children (hopefully).

He also made this train- how cool is that!?

I raided my mom's fabric stash and made 2 skirts while in Alaska. One is just simple with a fun pattern (showing here), the other is a peasant skirt with an awesome japanese fabric. (And very colorful!) I needed some new skirts- one word- elastic!

We went camping for the fourth of July, and that was awesome. Ian crashed hard on the fourth of July, and that was not awesome. We went with Kyle and Janae, and their friends Erica and Aaron. It was so much fun roasting hot dogs, starburst, and marshmallows, making orange muffins, and playing skipbo until we had a 4th, 5th, and 6th winner. It was not as fun when Kyle, Janae, and Ian started riding their bikes down the mountain.

Janae got stung by some sort of insect 2 minutes after they started, so we re-loaded her bike on the car, and I drove the lead car while Erica drove behind Kyle and Ian on their bikes. As we neared the bottom, the boys were closing in on me, so I went a little faster. I crested the last hill and parked at the side of the road waiting for the boys to catch up so we could load the bikes on the cars. I waited, and waited. I thought perhaps they stopped to load Kyles bike already, so I just kept waiting. At this point, I knew someone must have fallen, and secretly, I wished it was Kyle- simply because I didn't want it to be Ian. The boys finally rode up behind me, I asked what happened, and Ian simply said, "I fell." The road was really narrow, so Ian cut the corner a little tight, which didn't give him much control. He felt his bike wobble, so he tried to slow down a bit and aimed for the gravel/dirt/grasses instead of the asphalt. He was still going about 30 when he hit the gravel. A few minutes after he got to the car I realized how serious his fall was/could have been.

Kyle saw him fall, and says he skipped like a rock. Apparently, he bounced on his head, bounced and skidded, and then bounced and skidded again. His helmet is broken in 6 places, but his head is completely in tact. He has pretty major road rash on both arms, hands, and knees. His torso has a nice bit of it too. But after 3.5 hours in the urgent care, we were told there were no fractures and we got some big bandaids- the ones we have wouldn't have worked very well. Hooray for helmets.

I told Ian that he was lucky I was in front. If I had seen him fall, he wouldn't EVER be riding again. I'd be traumatized.

On a happier note, I am now the proud owner of a super duper cookbook! I'm so excited to try these things out! Its pretty much the coolest cook book I own right now.

And most recently- we went cherry picking for family home evening last night! It was so much fun! I'd never done that before, but I loved it! Not to mention, the cherries are delicious!

We talked to the owners of the orchard, and they said that they prefer to freeze them. So thats what we did. 9 pounds of cherries for $5. So 8 pounds went into the freezer.

I would say that we'd attempt to make something out of them...but we love to eat them, so I'd say they don't last long enough for a project. We already finished the pound that we kept in the fridge, haha.

And of course, the pregnancy is going splendidly. 26 weeks (and 3 days, to be exact) and aside from the fact that I look like a giant cherry myself, all is well!