Thursday, April 12, 2012

Catch Up

My sister, Kimberlee's blog inspired me to start my blog back up again! So much has been going on in the last few months, I feel like I haven't had time to sit down and write about everything (or I've just felt too sick to).

I am 16 weeks pregnant now, along with my sister Kim who shares the same due date with me....so here is a quick recap of the last couple months:

The first 7-12 weeks of pregnancy were not fun ones for me! And in the middle of that, Heath and I planned a trip to Japan (we booked this trip before we found out I was preggers). Japan was great though, even with all the frequent trips to the bathroom! My only regret is that I could not fully enjoy all the great and different Japanese food....I was pretty picky and would only eat fried rice (which isn't even Japanese, its Chinese) and yaki soba (noodles, cabbage, and soy sauce).

Heath planned EVERYTHING. Since he served his mission in Japan and also visited frequently after his mission while working for the Aussie airline Jetstar, he knew all the good places to visit and stay. We visited 5 different cities in 2 weeks. We went to Disney Sea, the snow (1998 Winter Olympics were held there), temples (including LDS temple), and different areas of Heath's mission. Here are a few good pictures of the overall trip...


















Since being back from Japan, we have both been busy working all the time! I am still working full time at my job, which has been very busy and demanding, but I am so grateful to have a job. Heath is working at Amart All Sports still and getting a few shifts substitute teaching at the Royal Brisbane Children's Hospital. He teaches sick children and their siblings in groups, and for those who are too sick to attend class, he will do one-on-one classes. It has been very eye opening for him...it's definitely a job I couldn't do! He comes home and tells me about his students and I just cry! But he enjoys it for the most part.

After the 12 week mark, I have started to get over my morning sickness and get my energy back. I am still traveling for work, which has been a struggle for me. When I have to fly to my 2 regional stores, my day will start at 5am and get home after 8pm. But, again, I am so grateful to have a job and don't know what I would be doing with myself if I wasn't working!

I haven't really had any cravings but the other week I was on a hunt for tamales! Australia has very limited Mexican food, and tamales is one of those delicacies they do not sell, or even have the products to make tamales. So I've been eating lots of tacos, burritos, and fajitas. I am not normally a milk person but I love cereal and chocolate milk right now! I usually have a glass of chocolate milk every night before bed.

I had a doctor's appointment today and the doctor asked if I wanted to hear the heart beat....HECK YES!! For me, being pregnant hasn't really hit me yet. I just feel like I'm sick all the time for no reason so to hear the heart beat of that little person inside of me makes it all real and worth it! She put the monitor on my stomach and you could hear the heart straight away, beating fast! The doctor said the baby is most likely awake and moving around. I was able to put a visual in my head of this little person swimming around inside of me, having a nice time in my belly. We have a scan in 2 weeks, where we'll find out the sex!! We are way too excited and can't wait to find out what we are having.

Well, that's my pregnancy update. I will try to be more diligent and post more often with pictures! For now, here is a picture I took a couple weeks ago....not quite a belly yet but I am feeling very bloated these days!

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Home Sweet Home

Welcome to our new home in Acacia Ridge, Queensland! It is an older house but I like to say it has character. The rooms and kitchen are newly painted and we are so happy to be in our own place!
We have a cute little garden on the side of our house and with all the rain we've been having in the last couple weeks, these little beauties just popped right up!
The is our lounge room and the first room you walk into when you enter the house.
Heath's sister, Renae, was moving at the same time and getting rid of some furniture, which included the book shelves! We have minimal furniture so we were happy to take these for free!
This is the dining room
And the kitchen, which is right of the dining room. We finally have a kitchen with a dishwasher which surprisingly enough we still don't use! I guess when it's just 2 people living here, it's just easier to wash them by hand then waste water and wash a few dishes. Maybe I've just been washing dishes by hand for too long!
Back door to our...
Backyard! In the left hand corner you will see a clothes line, which is standard in a Queensland house, as most people do not have dryers. Lucky for us, I found a bargain at a yard sale and scored us one for $30! No more hanging the clothes on the line.
Newly renovated bathroom.
Our favorite room by far...the Theatre Room.

And last but not least, our bedroom. The white box on the wall is our air-conditioning unit. Air-conditioning was a prerequisite while we were house shopping and all the rooms have air-conditioning units (thank goodness!) which, again, is not a standard in a Queensland house. I don't know how people build houses here and not have ducted air-conditioning! Guess the Aussies are really "green" here.
And here is our old TV, which Heath said we couldn't get rid of when we upgraded so it ended up in our room. Now, the cricket is on 24/7...Joy!
We also have one other room but I have not posted pictures because it has become the "I don't know where to put this" room. We have a spare bed, couches, clothes, shoes, vacuum, picture frames, etc. so I might post pictures at a later date when it actually looks like a room.

Heath and I lived in a tiny unit when we first got married (and when I say tiny, I mean it consisted of a bed room, which flowed into another room crammed with couches and a sink for a kitchen). We lived in this unit for 8 months in which after we moved to his sister's house, Jade, to save money while he finished school. We have been living at that house for almost 2 years. Although we had our own space in the downstairs part of the house, there is nothing like being in your own place!

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

So proud of this guy

Well done babe! You did it!

Cousins



Thursday, December 1, 2011

Christmas Tree, Thanksgiving, Couples Retreat, Tennis, Summer!!

I feel like I never have anything to blog about and then I realized I actually took pictures of some stuff we've been up to!

Well let's start with Christmas Tree. Heath's family tradition is to put it up November 1st but my family tradition is after Thanksgiving. So we decided to meet in the middle and do it Nov 12th. Why not enjoy the tree longer???
I had to work on Thanksgiving so I put Heath in charge of the turkey. I told him he would ruin Thanksgiving if he ruins the turkey...
He did a beautiful job! (he was so proud of himself) And you can't have Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie! Only paid $6.99 for the canned pumpkin (crazy, I know)
We made this little purchase just before Thanksgiving...on sale for $25!!
Starting from me going left: Courtney, David, Carol (David's mom), Jordan (friend who's family lives in America), Cody, Ben (American bro-in-law), and Hope
The day after Thanksgiving, we made plans to go to the Sunshine Coast for our annual Couples Retreat! We didn't do anything last year but the year before we went camping at Stradbroke Island. Heath and I planned this year and decided to stay in apartments at Marcoola beach.



View from our room!
Couldn't go a day at the beach without playing beach cricket! (David below)
Courtney playing in the outfield!
Brad
James "bowling" (the pitcher)
And lastly, Heath and Travis (bro-in-law) had their tennis tournament last night and won!! I think Heath is ready for the Brisbane International.

Just thought I'd throw this last picture in....this is a tree in front of our house that just all of a sudden blossomed with bright orange flowers!! (this photo does not do the colors justice) I love living in a tropical climate! I'm definitely ready for summer!

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Trinity, Trinity, Trinity...

I have lost my camera so that's why there are not more pictures from our Halloween Party this weekend! But here are the winners for best costumes...

Best female: Melissa! (with her husband Richard as her victim) Look at her freaky eyes!
Best male: James as Hellboy (he's been the Hulk, Avatar, Hellboy...what color will he do next year?)
And best dressed couple... the Pitmans! Paige was Bellatrix Lestrange and Travis was a Death Eater. The best part of their costume was the "Dark Mark" tattoo they had!
And this is Heath and I! Heath couldn't stop saying "Trinity" all night long. It was a fun party but I'm ready for someone else to host next year!

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Festivities!

I love this time of year! It really makes me miss home and all the fun things we do to get ready for the fall season. I put my big bowl of candy and other Halloween decorations out the first week of October and Heath was wondering why I was putting it out already, and I kept telling him "It's for the FESTIVITIES!" I love getting in the Halloween spirit!
Heath is enjoying my homemade pumpkins cookies. Australia doesn't have canned pumpkin (unless you go to an American store, then its like $20 for 1 can) so I decided to cook and mash my own pumpkin. The cookies turned out okay, but there's just something about that canned pumpkin that makes the cookies so much better!
Carving pumpkins! Heath didn't not get to carve a pumpkin with me last year, so this was his first time! He really enjoyed it! Next year we will get our own pumpkins to carve.
Ghostface and LORD VOLDEMORT(The Allens pumpkin)!

Can't wait for our Halloween Party this weekend!

Any guesses what Heath and I are going to be this year??? (Hint: we are a couple from a movie)

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

I have to brag again...

Heath had his Football Awards night and won 3 awards!


1. Best in Finals
2. Runner-Up Best & Fairest (similar to the MVP award. Heath missed 2 games and the guy that won only won by 4 points, so he was so close to winning!)
3. Named on the Team of the Year (in previous post)

Congrats babe! Now onto the next sport... Tennis!

Heath just entered in a tennis competition and I thought I would join the fun and take some tennis lessons. Maybe I'll do a competition next year....