double sad face

My sis-a-roo has been living with us since the fire in her apartment.

She was working at a nursing job, but hoping to find a different one since it was a bad situation there. A new job didn't quite work out. Boo.

Yesterday was her last day at work and she left today (when I went home for lunch) to move back to Columbus.

It's times like these that make me especially grateful for eternal families.

I miss her already. :(

(I stole the photo from facebook. hee-hee. B, don't be mad at me for posting it, ok?)

P.S. Happy leap day- the day that only comes once every four years. I learned from my sister that today is the only day that women can propose to men. In Ireland. She learned that from the movie Leap Year.

Sweet bundle of puppy dog tails...

For those of you who voted "boy" on the poll, you would be correct!

He was very, very active during the ultrasound and every time the technician tried to do a scan he would move around or hide his face with his hand (we did get some good images though). Despite all the movement he was definitely not shy about letting us know he was a "he". In the words of the ultrasound tech "I really don't have to explain what that is, do I?"
Since I was born with a birth defect and had to have surgery a few months after being born, we were referred to a high-risk OB for this ultrasound. They did a thorough anatomy exam and said everything looks really good- he's growing right on schedule, thankfully.

If his movement on the ultrasound is any indication, I think he will give us a run for our money! We're so excited!

Boy or girl?

Jesse and I are going to the anatomy ultrasound tomorrow (Thursday) for the baby, and if he/she cooperates we can find out the gender too!!

At first I wanted to keep the gender a surprise and not find out until the baby was born, but now I've decided I really want to know- Jesse wanted to know all along. My mom is planning on making the blessing outfit and it would be easier so she has enough time to make it as well. We'll also be able to prepare better ourselves! Not that we'll get all blue clothes if the baby is a boy or all pink if a girl, but maybe a little bit more gender specific clothes.

I'm super excited though! I have a feeling the baby is a boy! And Jesse also thinks boy! My sister and mom aren't sure, but my sister sometimes says the baby will be a man-child, (and she says it like that because I dislike that word!) But all my friends/relatives that are having babies are all having girls! :)

I put a little poll up on the sidebar (at the very top) so you can guess, too! ---------->

Here are some pregnancy symptoms that might help you:

1. I had lots of morning sickness up until about 16 weeks.

2. At the last appointment the baby's heartbeat was around 160.

3. I've felt the baby kick starting a day before 19 weeks.

4. I've only had a little heartburn, but it's not constant and not severe at all.

5. I can still fit into my regular pants but I can't button or zip them up- I have to use the belly band and most of my shirts are too short now.

6. I haven't really craved any food, but I do drink lots of milk and eat lots of cheese.

7. I tend to be more on the cool side, temperature wise.

8. I don't know if I'm carrying low or high. I guess I'd say more in the middle?

Regardless of whether the baby is a boy or girl, we're super excited to welcome this new little one into our lives and we really just hope he/she is healthy!

OK, guess away...!

D.A.

Have you heard of Downton Abbey?

Jesse started watching it at the end of Season 1 and now I'm hooked too! I really love British shows and this one is super (though slightly soap-opera-esque). There are some characters that I really like (Bates and Anna) and others that I can't stand (O'Brien and Thomas), but I love the time era and that it's British!

I can hardly wait for Sunday's season finale.

Will you be watching it?

Some things I love about my valentine

Photo taken at our wedding

:he always tells me that he loves me
:he is willing to scratch my back and give me back massages when I ask (even though he doesn't always want to)
:he takes out the trash
:he likes to cuddle
:he makes the bed
:he makes me laugh
:he is able to calm me down and say exactly what I need to hear when I'm upset
:he vacuums the apartment
:he makes up the best nicknames for me
:he talks to our baby every day and is going to be the best father
:I get to be his forever valentine!

Zelda Fitzgerald once said, "Nobody has ever measured, even poets, how much a heart can hold." and I know that's true- each day my love grows for Jesse and I am so blessed to have him as my eternal companion. He helps me to be a better person and I'm grateful I can spend the rest of this life (and eternity) with him. I often tell him "I love you much more than yesterday, but not as much as tomorrow."

I hope you all have a wonderful day and celebrate those you love!

bwak, bwak chicken

My sister and I went to the libray last night while Jess took a nap.

As I was looking through the videos I came across a DVD that looked so good I just had to borrow it- The Natural History of the Chicken.



I happily showed it to Jesse when I got home and he really couldn't contain his excitement* at wanting to watch it!

Have you seen this movie?

*not really- he looked kind of doubtful actually...

On my mind

1. I was looking at my blog postings and realized that I wrote just three posts in January. That's sad. Really, really sad.

2. Valentine's day is a week away. I have a slight idea of what I'm doing for Jesse (and other family members) but I have to solidify it for sure.

3. I made two loaves of homemade bread on Saturday night with our Kitchen-aid. By Sunday afternoon they were both gone except for a little end piece. Jesse loves bread (homemade especially) and I must admit, it was pretty good.
I forgot to take a picture but I will definitely be using that recipe again.

4. In the space of 7 months there will have been (will be) three new babies born on Jesse's side of the family:
My brother and sister-in-law (Jesse's brother and his wife) had a baby in December.
My other brother and sister-in-law (Jesse's sister and her husband) are due with their fifth child in April.
And our baby is due in July.
That will put the number of grandchildren up to 7 over a period of 7 months! Crazy!

5. We went grocery shopping last night since we had basically no food in our apartment. The store was pretty empty since we went about 9:30pm. As we passed the cereal aisle Jesse commented that when wheat has been bad, its punishment is that it's made into Cream of Wheat. That comment made me laugh.
Jesse doesn't like Cream of Wheat, but I do- especially with brown sugar. It's comfort food.


6. I haven't been able to find any maternity clothes yet. The Old Navy here doesn't have a maternity section. I have maybe one or two other stores to look at and if I don't find anything I'm not sure what I'll do.

7. I finished Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban over the weekend. Yes, I'm just now reading the series for the first time. I have this theory about waiting until the hype dies down to read a book. This way I don't have to wait 15 years for the book to come at the library.

8. Jesse read two books this weekend. He is a very fast reader and once he starts a book he wants to finish it in one sitting. He'll usually start a book Friday night and then stay up until the wee hours on Saturday to finish. He read books 6 and 7 in The Last Apprentice series.

9. Most of my friends who are pregnant are having girls. I'm now excited to find out whether our baby will be a boy or a girl...

10. I checked out a book from the library called The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding. When my sister saw the title she laughed. When Jesse read various chapters of the book he said that I shouldn't check out anymore pregnancy/breastfeeding books from the library since he now knows more about female bodies (i.e. my body) than he ever really wanted to know!

Have a good Tuesday!

P.S. The package that I talked about in this post still hasn't arrived. Except in my imagination.

ultrasound pic

These are mainly for my mom who hasn't seen any of the ultrasound pictures. These were taken on December 30th when I was a day shy of 13 weeks. (Sorry the quality isn't very good- I took a picture of the picture).


One baby with a strong back bone and the cutest nose!

What's in a name

I'm sorry most of the posts on here are now about our baby/babies. But that's a lot of what I think about now.


Jesse and I have had discussions recently about baby names.

I will give you a little background in case you don't know:

Our last name is Dahl, and it's pronounced basically like "doll" as in "the baby...."

Another fact is that Jesse is a horticulturist which means that he works with plants for a living. (And he loves it!)

So, that's the little background info.

Like I said, we have been discussing baby names.

These are some of the names I suggested:

-Porcelain
-China
-Rag
-Paper
-Harry
-Kenneth and Barbara- (We are just having one baby, but this was my suggestion before we knew it was just one in case we were having twins). Their nicknames would be Ken and Barbie.
-I also suggested Ann and Andy for boy/girl twins.
-And I thought our youngest child could be named Baby.

I also suggested
-Daisy
-Summer Flower
-Autumn
-Pansy
-Rose (which is my middle name too)
-Niblet (cute ear of corn)

Jesse said he wasn't so sure if I could have naming privileges anymore.

But then! Jesse suggested that we name all our children with the first name of "The" and for middle names use
Rag
Porcelain
China
Paper, etc

I tell you...our poor children.

Oh, you want to hear my sister's nickname for the baby? Baby Dot. Isn't it cute?

*****

Wowee. Pregnancy does some funny things to my emotions. I think it's those hormonoees.

A little while ago I ordered some items from LDS distribution. The order form said they would arrive in 5-10 business days. Monday was the 10th business day, so yesterday I decided to call and see what happened since we still hadn't received the items.

As I spoke to the nice lady on the phone she said she would check and see what happened to them since they left the warehouse last week.
She came back on the phone and cheerfully told me: "well the box arrived today" (meaning yesterday).
I politely informed her, as I was opening the door to double check, that it had not arrived. "Well, I'm sorry. Is there anything else I can help you with?" she so nicely asked. "Nope," I replied "just waiting for our items to still get here." "Have a great day" she said. When I got off the phone I told Jesse what happened since it was so funny to me. I then proceeded to chuckle about it for a good bit. When my sister got home from work I told her the items had arrived. "Where's the box?" she asked. "Umm, not here yet."

Later as we were falling asleep, I brought it up to Jesse again and started giggling so hard about the whole thing. In fact, every time I thought about it I started laughing again. The lady was so matter of fact that the box had arrived!
Jesse looked at me like I was off the deep end and said "I think those pregnancy hormones are making you crazy."

Oh, man...