Happy 3 Years to Us!

Crazy how time flies, isn't it? I can't believe we have already been married for 3 years! It's been a crazy good ride, particularly in the last year and promises to only get better. We continued with the tradition we started last year that one of us plans the festivities without the other having any knowledge. It was Hunter's turn this year, and believe me he didn't disappoint - even with very limited time frame and funds. 

First off though, we'll start with the actual day of our anniversary. It fell on a Wednesday which means that Hunter had school and I had work. A bunch of party animals we are, I know. haha. We had a nice dinner that night though followed by ice cream from Ashley's, of course! It's amazing to me just how much I love ice cream these days. 

We had our trip that Hunter planned this last weekend. It was quick, but incredible. We were able to spend all of Saturday in New York and see a surprising amount of things. 

The first stop we made: 9/11 Memorial. We both agreed that it was really well done. It was peaceful and calm and very respectful of all those who lost their lives that day. 

Included among the names of the deceased were the engine numbers of the first responders. A very fitting tribute I think.

They put a rose on the names of those who would have been celebrating a birthday. We saw a good amount of roses scattered throughout all the names.

This is one of the buildings they are building on the memorial site.

There was one tree that is still standing from pre-9/11 days. It is a pear tree that has been through some serious rehab, but still continues to live on. It is called the Survivor Tree.

After going to the 9/11 Memorial, we headed to the very southern tip of Manhattan to see the Statue of Liberty. We took pictures of the never ending city that is New York along the way.

My statue of Liberty pose ended up being my belly shot for 31 weeks. haha. 

After that we walked up through to Soho district before catching the subway to Central Park. Here are a couple of random pics from along the way - the first one is of the New York Stock Exchange.

And here we are at Central Park!

We barely got to explore the southern tip of the park. You could seriously spend days there and still not see everything that it has to offer. It's incredible to me that they have such an extensive and beautiful park right in the middle of the biggest city I've ever seen.

They have an area solely dedicated playing chess and checkers. There are tables like this surrounding the whole building and you can rent chess or checker pieces. Kind of random and cool.

Next, we headed down to dinner via the Avenue of the America's. The whole road was shut down and lined with little shops and street food. We were a little sad that we were on our way to dinner because everything smelled so good!

Dinner happened at Keen's Steakhouse. Hunter pulled out all the stops here. The whole place was lined in pipes - and they labeled the ones of famous people. 

 Dinner consisted of a LOOOOT of delicious food. We started off with some thick smoked bacon and lobster bisque. They aren't joking when they say thick sliced.

Then came the main course. I ordered the smallest steak on the menu - an 8 oz fillet Mignon. Hunter opted for the famous mutton chop - which was an incredible 26 oz portion (bone included).

He even managed to finish the whole thing!

We had some of the best roasted potatoes I have ever tasted to accompany our large plates of meat and finished off with cheesecake and chocolate mouse for desert. We were not disappointed. Everything was incredible.

Next stop: Times Square.

We were a little rushed through Times Square because we had a show to make it to...turns out I have an amazing husband who bought us tickets to see Wicked!! Seeing Wicked in New York was definitely on the bucket list.

I'm not sure what I was expecting, but this far exceeded every expectation I had. The story line was funny and catchy with fun ties to the Wizard of Oz. We were thoroughly entertained the entire time. 

Hunter definitely hit the ball out of the park this year. Happy 3rd Anniversary to us! Here is to another year filled with even bigger and better things!

Fetal Growth Check

As I mentioned previously, extra monitoring is required with a two vessel cord to ensure adequate growth. What this meant for me (I think it may be different based on the doctor, other things going on, etc.) was an extra ultrasound early in the third trimester. Well, I had that ultrasound last week at almost 31 weeks.

Here are some pictures of our little guy!

He moved all around the whole time. We weren't able to get any good 3D pictures because he kept his face smashed up in the placenta for most of it, but that's okay, the 2D ones look great! It was a lot of fun - we got to see him open and close his mouth, his little chest move up and down as he breathed, and watch his little heart beat. 

He even has hair! Kinda cool that we can know that already!

Hunter was very fascinated in this ultrasound because they had just had a lecture on fetal circulation the day before so he could name all the parts of his heart and say exactly what they were doing and why. We got a couple videos as well so he could show his classmates and see if they could recognize things. 

And now for the whole reason we were there in the first place: checking out his size. As it turns out, our little guy isn't going to be so little. On that day, 30 weeks and 6 days, his estimated weight was 4 lbs 6 oz. That puts him in the 91st percentile for size at this point. Looks like I need to be preparing myself for a 9 pounder! Oye. haha. Rest assured though, I am not gestational diabetic (I did have to take the 3 hour tolerance test because I failed the screen by one lousy point! But, I passed the 3 hour with no problems) and my weight gain is right on track, even lower end of normal. After asking both of those questions, the doctor said we are just genetically programmed to have big babies. However, it is wonderful to know that he is growing as he should be and there are no complications thus far. 

We'll finish this post off with my latest belly pic at 30 weeks:

Life in New Haven

The last couple months have been spent adjusting to life in New Haven. In a lot of ways, it is very much different, but in a lot of ways it is very much the same. I'm not sure how much sense that makes, but there it is. haha. Perhaps the biggest change for us is our schedules. Hunter is in school at this point and spends most of his day there. We are able to have dinner together almost every single day, which is something we have never experienced before. And here I am, at 3:34 in the morning typing up this post as I prep for my first week as a graveyard shifter. Big changes all around. There were a few weeks there where it was pretty rough, and maybe it had a lot to do with pregnancy hormones getting the better of me, but overall this move has been a really good experience. 

This is what our church looks like:

Our ward here is incredible. One thing that has made our transition far better than it could have been is the ward and the friendships we have been able to make. A good chunk of the ward are BYU/Utah transplants (us included, obviously). There are also a LOT of babies and soon to be babies so we fit right in! haha. We have really enjoyed getting to know people and making completely new friends. I have never experienced such closeness in a ward family before. It makes sense though because most of us are far, far from home and want/need the support. One thing I found really interesting was at my first OB appointment the midwife asked if I was part of the Latter Day Saint community, to which I responded yes, and her response was something like "That's good. They are such a close knit community and provide an instant support system, which you will need". It surprised me for a couple reasons, but exactly describes what we have experienced.

This beach is about 4 miles away from our house. Kinda cool to live this close to the ocean - I may be biting my words once hurricane season hits with full speed though. We are far enough inland that we should be fine except for crazy winds, rain, and power outages. We will see - or better yet, hopefully we won't. haha.

It really is a beautiful area. There are soooo many trees and everything is so green and lovely. Parks are more like forests than my Utah version of a park and they are all over. 

Here is the view from the top of East Rock - one of the parks I mentioned. Pretty incredible right?

Before I lead you to believe it is all fun and games though, I will say that New Haven definitely isn't the safest place to live. There are obvious areas where things are pretty rough. I think we have heard more sirens in the two months we have been here than all of our married and college years in Utah. And don't even get me started on the driving. Oye. People say driving in Utah is bad - they have obviously never been to Connecticut. Also, the roads and their organization are terrible. The guy who came to set up our cable put it best when he said "they grabbed a handful of spaghetti noodles, dropped it, and said there is your map of New Haven." Exactly. Quite the change from perfectly square, grid system Utah. 

As far as our house is concerned, I mentioned in the last post that it was a disaster when we got here. We were able to clean it up really well that first day between my mom and myself and have been doing bigger things as we settle in more. One of the first things we did was paint our bedroom. 

Before: see where the picture hung before and how all the paint faded around it? And it's already been taped off to paint in the picture, but I don't even know what they were doing around the trim. It's like someone started to repaint it they decided not to after doing all the trim. I don't even know.

...and after!

So. Much. Better. Even for a couple novice painters. We are very pleased both with the color and the even paint job.

After painting, we celebrated with Ice Cream. We quickly located an awesome little ice cream place that we have visited at least 10 times - probably more. We might be some of their best customers. 

No post would be complete without a random picture of at least one of our dogs: here's Ameya.

Another thing we (I?) have really enjoyed is the abundance of fresh fruit and veggies - even meat and cheese - that we have been able to find out here. We have visited one of many farmers market's a couple times and come away with awesome veggies as well as meat straight from the farm. Cheese was available too, but inedible for me in it's unpasteurized and my pregnant state. They also had local honey and baked goods. We were also able to go to one of the many orchards surrounding the area and pick our own raspberries. This bucket you see pictured was just over a pound and a half and cost me just over $6. How awesome is that?!? We will definitely be going back - probably to pick apples this time around. 

Our dogs haven't had the best time adjusting and have certainly destroyed a number of things when left alone for any extended period of time. This has been particularly difficult when I am at work and Hunter has been at school - this should be improving soon though since my work schedule is changing and they won't be left alone for longer than they can be crated at this point. 

We have slowly started to work on the nursery as well! Baby needs a good place to come home to! Perhaps the biggest and most crucial addition came just this last week from my parents....the crib! Isn't it pretty?

We also painted the nursery last week. It used to be a sickly shade of yellow tinged with black smudge that wouldn't wash off no matter how much bleach and cleaner was used. In my study of paints over the last couple months, I think that is due to the poor quality of the paint that was used. The crappier the paint, the less things wash off of it. We are quite pleased with the lovely shade of gray that the nursery is now. You can definitely tell which rooms in our house we painted as our color scheme seems to be much different from the owners. However, we are improving the quality of the home with every adjustment we make. 

I will post more pics of the nursery as it continues to come together - I've only got 8 1/2 weeks left (eek!) so it should be coming together pretty soon!

And here is your random pic of Kenobi for this post: