Absence makes the heart grow fonder

Wow it has been way too long since a post (thank molly for getting my butt in gear!) Things have busy busy busy. I can't believe all that has happened in the last two months, needless to say we are now two weeks from little Davis being here and things are crazy.

I am going to do this starting with the least most recent to the most recent events... here we go...

Back in Sept. we said goodbye to our precious kiwi. Daniel finished his summer of coaching and hopped the pond back to London. We offered to let him stay and be our manny (manny Danny) as tempting as that offer was he went back to London. We miss him a ton and can't wait for him to come again this summer hopefully for a lot longer stay!


My little sister Danielle the beautiful girl in the middle moved up to Rexburg Idaho to finish college. She got her associates degree from a junior college in California where she also played volleyball, then transferred. I am so proud of her, she works so hard and and has the purest heart and greatest loyalty of anybody I know. She is amazing and I am so glad that she is just a short drive away. I was able to visit her on mothers weekend and see how she lives life in Idaho... We had a ton of fun just hanging out and staying up late talking.



Here we are after her volleyball game. It was so fun to see her play, she is such a stud. They killed the other team of course.


About a week after I got home from my visit to Rexburg I hopped a plane for the last time until this pregnancy is over and went to Arizona. The plan was to spend the time with my sister in law Sharisa who was also pregnant at time shopping and talking baby stuff. Plans kinda changed though when the day before I came out she had a c-section. That was okay with me though. She had him on Oct. 16 she named him Merrick Ryan, he is gorgeous. He did have a small tear in his lung so he was in the nursery for a couple days which kept us from being able to see him as much as we would have liked. I did get to hold him and spend time with him and Sharisa before I left. I also got to spend a lot of time with my sister in law Erica and nieces Ella and Ruby. Erica is the best mom I have ever seen and will be such a great resource for me and Justin as we start raising our Little lady. She and my mother in law also threw a baby shower for me and Sharisa who was in the hospital still with her baby so it was just me. It was so fun though and I love Justin's side of the family. They are the sweetest people and I can't wait for our little lady to meet them.


Here is Ella she has personality just bursting out of her. I loved every minute of playing tea party and watching kid shows with her. I hope that her and Davis will be very close.


Little ruby she is equally as cute but a little more low key than Ella, they are the perfect mix.



This is quite possibly My favorite picture of the weekend. We went to a buffet for lunch and this little girl took her eating very seriously. (anyone who knows Richard knows that she gets this trait from him. She was very sick of me taking pictures while she was trying to devoure that ice-cream cone)

Erica and I also took the girls to this great kids museum where they played for hours. It was the best place. The museum had a ton of interactive toys and things to climb on. It was so fun watching them play.

We didn't get many pictures from the actual baby shower, all of us got caught up talking and hanging out so I only have the before pictures of the food and cute decorations that Erica made.

Oh and did I mention that my wonderful husband surprised me by showing up to spend the last two days with me and his family. This was such a great surprise we are so busy all the time that we don't get many vacations or weekends free for that matter.

And here are some more pictures from the great week I had with the Hutchins family. I love them.

After my many weekends of parting it was back to regular life of working hard and getting little sleep. There is an upside to being so busy it has helped the end of this pregnancy go by really fast. Our excitement is growing exponentially everyday. A few weeks ago we finally got the room painted with the chair rail up. Our close friends came down with all the right tools and helping hands and we got the room done in one day. (Painted and all.) We also put the crib together and got it in the room. It turned out so cute, the colors looked better on the wall than I had expected.

Here are the guys working very hard as you can see. But seriously they did such a beautiful job!!

Justin got to use us tools and manly skills to put together little lady's crib. It is absolutely gorgeous and we are grateful to my parents for such a great gift to Davis. She will sleep in style.

I know that I have forgotten a lot of stuff but I hope that this was enough to give you an idea of what we have been up to in the last two months. There is a lot more to come as the days wind down to Davis being in our home.

Fun Fun Fun!!!!

This weekend was packed full of fun and good friends. On Friday Utah Valley had their first match against Utah @ Utah. It was fun to watch Justin back in his element of coaching, and it was a good game to watch (most of the time). They also had another game Saturday afternoon, they lost in five but they had a couple good games. After the game we went out to yogurt with some friends.


First Time out of the season!

Sexy Can I and Daniel

Justin Headed to the locker room after a good fight against Utah

Since this is Daniel's last weekend here in the USA we wanted to go out in style. Sunday morning we drove to go to music and the spoken word in the conference center. It was so amazing they sang Nearer My God to Thee and it gave me chills. I also cried when they sang "God Be With You "till We Meet Again." I get sad thinking that our summer with the Kiwi is coming to an end. We went to church in the Joseph Smith building. That night we had our friends Jess, Lacey, Dani, and Sexy Can I (Cache Allen) over for tacos, Tim Tam Slam, and Flight of the Concords. We are so blessed to have such good friends to spend our time with.

I know it is summer and I am so white, it sucks spending all summer in a gym


Jess, Lacey, and the Kiwi




Justin just needs a yellow tie and they would be the cutest couple ever!!


I love my new Camera


We are hard core! and notice the baby bump is out and proud, 25 weeks and counting.

Sexy Can I and Justin enjoy tacos.

This is my favorite of Daniel, he is making hot chocolate for the Tim Tam Slam!

Daniel instructing on the proper Tim Tam Slam technique.

Labor day was just a chill day. Justin had to get up early for 9am practice. So I got up made muffins and settled in for a chilly rainy day. The rain just started dumping and huge puddle started forming outside our doorstep. Daniel invited Jess over and we decided to relive our childhood. We played in the puddles, Daniel did a belly flop into the water it was awesome. Since I can't exactly dive on my stomach I stood there and Daniel dove through my legs it was so fun. I just wish Justin could have been there. Enjoy the video.


Me and Daniel (thumbs up we LOVE puddles)

Jess and Daniel oh ya it was cold!

First week of school... and little gal stuff!

This was the first week back to school. It was a great way to start the year. There are seven kids in the class this year which is a lot more manageable than 14. The first day was definitely an adjustment for them after being out of the school routine for so long but by Friday we were doing goals and getting a good jump start to the year. I feel like this year we will be able to really stay on top of behavior modification since there aren't as many kids and chaos all the time. The night before I started school Justin asked in his prayer that I would be able to know the best ways to help the kids and be in tune to what they are feeling, and after this week I really feel that the lord listened and granted me that blessing. Example 1: One of the little boys was having a very difficult time sitting and working, I had that prayer in the back of my mind and really felt prompted about how to help him. I took him aside talked to him and gave some sensory toys to calm him down, I felt like he just needed to feel like he was being listened to and loved. After a minute of just talking, being calm and whispering in his ear (which he loved) I was able to get him to sit in his seat and do a little work. I love these kids so much they just make my heart melt. I also really feel the love that our heavenly father has for them I know that they are very special spirits to him and that I need to treat them exactly how he would want me to.

This was the first weekend that Justin and I got to spend together in almost a month. So we lived it up!! On Friday we stayed home ate dinner and went to bed at 10:00. I know... we are real party animals ," live on the edge" is our family motto. Today was fun though We woke up and I made blueberry muffins for breakfast, Justin hung by the pool and I went to lunch with the teachers I work with. I had to be home by 3 because we had to watch the USA woman's volleyball team play for gold. It was a great match but the Brazilians proved to be to much for the USA to handle. Then we went SHOPPING!!! We went to babies R Us we looked and tested strollers and found one that we love so that is down, we picked out the crib we want. It is a little overwhelming how much stuff we need for this little gal.

We also went to Ross to see if they had any cute baby stuff we are slowly getting our little gal cute things to wear when she gets here.

Justin actually picked out this one It says " favorite things... Grandma, hugs, kisses." the white one behind it had a cute little duck on the front. I just talked to my mom so the grandma part just got me. Justin impressed me with this one he is so good at picking out cute stuff for her.

These were also a Justin pick they are her first Nike's. They just little booties but they are Nike and so adorable. We have already decided that she has to be good at sports we don't really care what sport as long as it gets her a college scholarship.

In New Jersey I stayed with the same family that we did last summer. They are the sweetest people and Justin and I really feel blessed that we get to meet such amazing people when we do these camps. This year was so fun because I just got to know them better and they were so sweet to get little gal her first outfits. The sayings are just too funny, the sleeper you can see, the middle one says " mommy thinks she's in charge" and the one on the right says " Daddy's wrapped around my finger" which so true already it is so cute now that she can hear things he will talk to her.

I thought I would add another of this one because I think that it is so cute!

3 years and counting...

On August 12th we celebrated our three year wedding anniversary. I was in New jersey and Justin was here. It wasn't the best way to spend our anniversary but when we talked that night it was so fun to think back on all the things we have done and accomplished together in three years. It is weird how it has only been three years but it is hard to remember a time when I didn't have Justin with me. Life has been so wonderful since meeting and marring him. We have done a lot of cool things together, traveled the country together, coached together and the best part of all is that we are now having a little baby together. He makes me laugh everyday and feel so good about myself.( especially now that I feel like a big fatty now a days).

Since as I said before we were apart on our actual anniversary we celebrated this week instead by going out to dinner at our favorite place Cafe Rio and then going to a Jack Johnson concert. It was so fun! Justin surprised me by calling me during class saying that he was getting the tickets and we were going later that night. He picked me up after school and we headed up there to eat which was of course good, because of all the traveling I hadn't had Cafe Rio in a couple months so it was GOOD!! The concert started at 7 and the doors opened at 5 so we got there at like 4:45. We got our place on the lawn and just chilled for a few hours, it was just great to be able to sit with Justin talk and just be together.

Justin and I finally broke down and bought a new camera which makes me so happy. It feels so good to have a way to document all the exciting things that are happening right now in our life.

This is before the underage drunk slutty girls with Gross guys hanging on them came in and sat right next to us. The music was great but it as I watched these guys buy the girls all the beer they wanted and then take advantage of the lack of inhabitions, my mind was drawn to our soon to be status of parents to a little girl. I now know why my parents were always so worried when we left the house and wanted to know everything that I was doing. Our little gal isn't even here yet and I have already had a lot of "now I know why they did that" they being my parents. I want the best for her but I know looking around and seeing how bad the world is getting that we have our work cut for us. Our number on job right now is to make sure that our home is a refuge from that world.

Since this is our little girls first concert we decided that she needed something to remember it by. They were selling these and it wasn't that bad cost wise. It is blue so when she wears it I will put a matching blue flower head band on her when she wears it. Our girl is going to be the coolest little girl ever. My mom and dad have even gotten her a surf board tummy time mat. So even though we don't have a beach here we are going to make her California girl at heart( just like her mom).

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY HONEY I LOVE YOU!!! With so many more to come I can't wait to see what the future holds for us.

The little gal

I am having so much fun looking at all the cute stuff out there for girls. The options are endless not just in the clothes but all the cute little accesories that can go with every outfit. Our little gal hutchins is going to be totally girlie, and play with transformers says justin. I found this outfit and I think that i might just have to get it for when this little gal comes home. Olivia is not going to be her name but you can get it personalized to say whatever. Trust me there is more where this came from. my next adventure is deciding how I want to decorate her room. Any suggestions are welcomed.

I know how cute. I am so exicted, I can't wait until december when we can see her and hold her. The best thing right now is seeing how excited justin for her to come as well. He is so amazing through this whole process I just fell in love with him even more. Okay I'm done with the cheese.

IT'S A GIRL!!!!!

Justin and I are totally perma-a-grin right now. We are so excited for our little girl to join our family. Up to this point pregnancy has been rather surreal for me, I haven't felt much different, I don't look much different, and so it hasn't been real. We went to the doctor last week to find out but didn't which was disappointing. Then we had to reschedule for after I was done with the volleyball camps in three weeks, so I was really sad. I am not a fan of surprises at all so it has been killing me to not know what we are having. Anyway I left for my camp in Washington and Justin went to dinner with some friends and they told him about a place called fetal photos. It is a place where you can go and pay a flat rate and a licensed OB gives an ultrasound and tells you what you are having. So I decided I had to know, we made an appointment for Friday afternoon (which is today) for when I got home. Justin picked me up from the airport, we went out to lunch with a friend and then straight over to find out what our little baby is.

It's amazing how up to this point it has been surreal but when she showed up on that screen and we could see her face and hands, feet and fingers wow. She was sleeping when we started and so we were moving my stomach to wake her up. When I moved she would curl up her hands and cover her face, she was tired and didn't want mom to bother her. She was so cute she yawned and stretched a couple times. Whoa it is crazy to say her and she aww. Her heart looked great and was beating strong, the spine was well developed, and the brain looks good. That is was what really mattered to us. Now the fun can really begin watch out everything pink!

I love my little girl so much, I just can't wait to see her in person. Seeing her on that screen made me so happy I am going to be a mom to beautiful girl what will hopefully have Justin's temperament and my athleticism (and no I didn't mix those two up). I just hope that we can teach her and love her they way our heavenly father wants her to be. It is amazing how this morning I woke and looked at motherhood and parenting totally different, now I can picture raising my beautiful baby girl. I am so grateful that I have a husband who will be a great father. I love him so much he has the best blessing of my life. Justin is amazing and I am so excited to raise our eternal family together. I love you little girl!!!

The Gentle Giant

While Sharisa was here I got a call from my sister informing me that my uncle Calvin my mom's oldest brother had past away. He had a heart attack while home by himself. My uncle Cal and aunt Ruth were the best examples to our family of how to love and care and be totally selfless. My mom's dad past away when she was about 16 and he brother Cal stepped right in and helped is mom take care of the nine other children in the family. I have the fondest memories of visiting them often in Newbury Park and playing in their big bonus room up stairs. He was always showing us his cool gun collection and teaching us how to shoot a bow and arrow. He was a big strong guy with an even bigger heart. His legacy lives on with his beautiful sweet wife my wonderful aunt Ruth Hair, His son Jesse who has the best sense of humor of anybody I have ever met, and his daughter Karen with her adorable little boy with one on the way.

It is so great to know that families are forever and that my grandma and grandpa have their oldest son with them again in heaven. I love my family everyone of them and will miss uncle Cal an hope that we can all work on being more like him.

Week with the preggos

The day after we picked Daniel up from the airport we got to go back to pick up my sister in law sharisa who came out for a visit. She took a week out from work to come and keep me company and do a little shopping. She is also pregnant, she is about 6 weeks ahead of me and they are having a boy. We spent the week talking laughing, cooking and shopping.

Some Highlights:
** Earlier that week Justin finally got the movie he had been for from Netflix. Side Out it is a volleyball movie that was made in the 80's. When I say 80's i mean 80's big hair, lots and lots of neon, stone washed jeans, and pants to the armpits. Anyway Sharisa thought that it would be fun if we made dinner and themed it after the movie. We made Zack Barnes zucchini, cutty chicken, Sparkling shotty soda. There were others but I can't remember them right now

** Sitting around in our pajamas until 1 in the afternoon.

**Going to Park City and shopping all day. I found some great jeans. I really found two pairs and wanted both but decided to get one because of the price. I get to the register and they end up being half the price so I got two pairs of designer jeans for the price of one. WHOO HOO. Then as we were walking down main street we were talking about trying to find a Bella Band. It is a band that goes around your waist it keeps your pants up even when they are unbuttoned and unzipped. That way you can wear you regular jeans your whole pregnancy. Well just as we were trying to think of places that sell them we walked into a store and not a baby store, and there they were. So Sharisa got one after just saying that she wanted one really bad.

** We scoured the valley for stores that had cute baby boy stuff. Trust us there is just not a lot of things for boys that are cute. You can even ask Daniel we dragged him around with us one day. We told him that while we were out we could by a phone store so he could put minutes on his phone. The funny thing is we didn't even do that we got caught up with shopping for baby stuff and totally forgot. (sorry Daniel, but hey what a trooper he was.)

** We found the best little boutique called Dear Lizzie it made me hope that I was having a girl. All the stuff they had was amazing and beautiful, even the cupcakes. But we didn't get a cupcake, we forgot to. Oh well we'll have to do that next time she comes to visit.

** Watching our husbands play volleyball together for the first time. It was great to be in the sun and Justin and Brock did really well for the first time playing together. We had a great BBQ afterwards, steak potato's, corn on the cob, and salad it was wonderful. Friends family and good food a perfect vacation.

It was nice to be able to spend so much time with Sharisa. She is a beautiful, smart, kind, caring person. I really enjoyed having her here and wish what her and Brock lived closer so we could spend even more time together. I can't until both our babies are born in know they will be close.

Return of the Kiwi

Daniel Jones the international man of mystery. Daniel is a good friend of ours that Justin met on his trip to New Zealand a couple years ago. He came here last summer to visit friends and to do volleyball camps with me and Justin with gold medal squared. We had a blast with him while he lived with us, and missed him when he left. He moved from here to London and Now he is back! He decided to come back for this summer again to do camps. We are so happy to have him here. He is the nicest guy, and we just love having him here. We wish that he would just move here and stay. (oh and we have to make sure that he doesn't have fizzy drinks or things like this happen) **fizzy drink=caffinated soda**