friend baby shower

 My girlfriends Jessica and Mel threw our little boy a jungle themed baby shower today and it was fabulous! Loved seeing everyone who could come :) I seriously am so lucky to have such wonderful girls out here that support and love me

  I had a rough week with experiencing my first braxton hicks and being exhausted from working so it was a great weekend to distract myself and spend time with people I love. xoxo

St Patty's Day Weekend

Scotty was not on call this weekend... so automatically it was a great weekend- plus we seriously celebrated St. Patricks Day, seriously. On Friday night we hosted a green dessert party. The Halls, Neilsons, Logans, and Matty and Kim came over and we had a great night catching up and eating.We did our usual get together night- all the girls sat on the floor and laughed hysterically over something for hours while the boys got the chairs and talked med school. Scotty was so excited to have Irish music playing via pandora. Unfortunately I didnt take any pics.. again, except for my Mtn Dew cupcakes that surprisingly turned out delish. Jess made green sugar cookies with cream cheese frosting and fruit, Kim made breadsticks with a pot of gold (cheese dip), Danielle brought mint icecream, and Alison made shamrock shakes. Needless to say.. my baby was freaking out the rest of the night, total sugar rush. Luckily he calmed down around midnight after everyone left and I crashed on the couch.


On Saturday we slept in and then drove down to Chicago for the festivities. It was very adventurous of us since I'm prego but to spend the day with my hubs in the city was so worth the tender, swollen feet. We found awesome parking (only $6 for the day) and started walking down to the parade scene. It was crazy insane to say the least. There were swarms of green... most were drunken youngies (yes I know they were prob our age) but there were also lots of families with strollers and surprisingly some small babies. Of course we got slurpees at the first 7eleven we saw (there is seriously one on like every corner.. love chitown).

We made it down to millennium park to attempt to see the parade... when we got down there Scotty (not me, surprisingly) had to pee so bad that he made his way over to the portapotties. Since he left his cell phone at home I told him I would wait right by this tree... 45 minutes and one anxiety panic attack from me later he finally came back. By then the parade had already started, a drunk girl had puked by the tree, swarms of partiers had invaded the trees to get a better view, tons of livid families leaving, a group of skank girls doing green jello shots in the middle of the park and one overheated pregnant lady, already tired from standing. Ridiculous. The weather was gorgeous.. 80 degrees! Girls were in swim suit tops and shorts and everyone wore flip flops. Crazy. Once scotty finally came back, we gave up on the plan of actually "seeing" the parade through the crowd and walked to the park were it was more open. Or so we thought. Everyone had the same plan as us apparently because they had to block off the bean due to crowding. I reached my breaking point and told scotty we had to get out of there!! I could only protect my belly so much while hooligans tried to hop the fence to the bean, only to be chased by the cops. It was out of control. 

We got lunch at johnny rockets and it was so nice to sit... and eat.. and people watch. Then we went to the river- I couldn't believe how neon green it was dyed. So amazing to see- made it all worth it!

We spend the afternoon walking michigan ave until I couldn't hide my exhaustion in my expressions anymore. I did pretty well all day and was really proud of myself. Despite the crowds, it honestly felt good to have a mini vacay with the hubs before I go home this week. I'll be back in Utah on the 22nd!!!

cheers!

Sobelmans {Milwaukee's best burger}

Tonight we went out on a double with the Logans to celebrate Clinton passing the Step 1 boards. We checked out the famous restaurant Sobelmans to see what these burgers were all about... and it was delish!

We had a great dinner catching up and after we got ice cream at Leon's... yum raspberry custard with hot fudge.

After we just couldn't get enough of each other so we went over to our place. Dani and I walked over to speedway to get treats and a redbox. We tried to make the boys happy but ended up getting the worst movie ever- Cowboys vs Aliens. So painfully long and pointless. "At least there was that one really good scene when that guy went down to the river to..." hahaha Thanks guys I needed a fun night and a good laugh after my long work week :)

night at the spa

{what we do when our guys are on call}

Jess and I went and got facials tonight and it felt so good to pamper ourselves! These preg hormones and this random winter have made my skin not so cute lately...plus it was free!! Looking forward to getting another one next month :)

{cookie night}

 Jenna had a gno at her place tonight and it was so fun to catch up with the girls and decorate cookies for valentines day. We don't get to see each other as much these days since the hubs are on different rotation schedules. These girls are my fam out here.. dont know what I would do without them!

reiki

{Have you heard of Reiki before? Yeah I hadn't either... }

I meet Ali through our Rewards & Recognition committee and we have become close work friends. She is a Reiki master and is always telling me about the benefits of holistic healing. I've always been a strong believer in positive thinking and found her approach to having a mind/body connection very interesting. Being pregnant I've really gotten into yoga and meditation. Every night I stretch and try to feel in tune with my body's needs. I have also been thinking a lot about my friend Danielle and her frustrating adoption process. Since she has done acupuncture before I thought she would be interested in Reiki as a form of relaxing and distressing. After a little research we made a date out of it and loved trying something new!

Reiki= a Japanese technique for stress reduction and relaxation that also promotes healing. It is administered by "laying on hands" and is based on the idea that an unseen "life force energy" flows through us and is what causes us to be alive. If one's "life force energy" is low, then we are more likely to get sick or feel stress, and if it is high, we are more capable of being happy and healthy.

We learned that our bodies have 7 Chakras or "energy centers" that each represent different areas in our life. When Ali held a pendulum over these different areas apparently its supposed to show if its out of balance or something and what areas she needed to focus on. Very new aged thinking. I strongly believe that our minds are way powerful and can heal our bodies so it was interesting to me.

We both had a very relaxing experience. If anything it was a good half hour for me to forgot about the outside world, take some deep breaths, and focus on me. I actually read an article that says it can make you feel connected to your baby... I didn't feel any connections but I did feel at peace. Ali said there was a lot of love surrounding me :) She could feel angels at my feet helping me with my balance. She also said that the whole time she got the impression that it was a BOY... we'll see if the Reiki master was right soon! Overall it was fun to experience something new... if I ever felt way stressed or had super bad anxiety I would do it again.

if any of my wisco friends are interested here is her website
healinghands-reiki.abmp.com/home

ugly sweater ~ eggnog party

on Saturday the Halls hosted a

ugly sweater eggnog party

and it was so fun to get together with everyone before we all leave for the holidays. We found some pretty ug sweaters...

miller time {weekend recap}

here in Wisco instead of going to Temple Square to see the lights we head over to Miller Valley. Not to down play the ghettoness but they actually put on a really cool light show thats fun to check out. Very festive. Although its starting to get freezing cold, it was a nice date night with the hubs to get us into the Christmas spirit. We went out to Noodles & Co. for dinner and spend the night cuddled up watching Elf.

On sat we went to the Halls to play a Dance 3 game on their wii.. it was so hilarious to watch the boys get there dance on. Jess and I are getting pretty good at Britney Spears (I felt like I was 13 again dancing to oops I did it again haha) We made hot chocolate with their cocomotion and chilled after so the boys could watch the Badger football game. It was a fun and relaxing weekend :)

twihards

Yes the much anticapated Breaking Dawn came out today and you know I went and loved it. The hype of it all isn't as big in Wisconsin which made it even more hilarious to show up in our twlight shirts and be the first in line. We went with the Halls and Thoresteds. Fun night!

our differences bring us together ha!



the hubs sported their wolf shirts, such troopers! Prob not what they wanted to be doing on their Friday night but hey marriage is all about supporting each others passions.  And don't  lie you liked the shirts we got you ... ;) 



girls day in Chicago

I went down to Chicago with some of my girls and we had an amazing time sightseeing, eating, shopping, and catching up!

me, danielle, jessica, & jenna



 We ate an early lunch at Chicago's famous Portillo's hot dog restaurant :) 

 

delish cake shakes

 we spent the afternoon at navy pier  

gorgeous fall day at millennium park

    

We walked a ton, ate Garretts popcorn (chicago mix- cheese & caramel), went shopping on Michigan ave, and got some deep dish pizza for dinner. We were all exhausted at the end but it made for a funny drive home.We had such an amazing day...seriously my favorite city:) We need to do this more often!

Happy Halloween

Kim & Matt threw their annual Halloween party and we had a great night! With the boys different rotation schedules we don't get together as often so it was fun to see everyone and dress up...

pauly d & snooki from jersey shore

me & jess

the girls... can't believe this is our 3rd Halloween party together!!

D & I dancing around... as usual :)

Ms Peacock & Professor Plum killed Snooki!

Jenna & Kim

the Halls as Thing 1 & Thing 2

Professor Plum & Ms Peacock





The Thorsteds... creepy



  

Happy Halloween!!!