Cookie Dough.

Some of you may remember, some may not, but for a Christmas a couple of years ago we surprised my mom with a cow. She had been asking for one for a long time, which is somewhat absurd considering that we raise cattle. But, all of our cows are black angus (just plain black all over) and she wanted a belted galloway (aka Oreo Cows... Black with a white stripe down the middle). BIG difference. 

Needless to say, she got what she wanted and we introduced you all to Cookie... 

See post here.

Well, Miss Cookie is all grown up now and just had a baby of her own. Since our cows are just plain black, what the calf would look like has been a topic of conversation ever since we got Cookie. Would the calf still have a stripe? Would it just be a skinnier stripe? You get the picture.  The actual result made us all laugh.

So without further adieu, I introduce you to Cookie Dough....

She looks exactly the same on the other side. So, pretty much the stripe got cut short and only goes halfway around. HA! So fun!

Here is a picture of the proud mama with her baby...

Proof.

After I posted a picture of my extremely large belly side profile, I got some funny responses. My little brother asked if it was fake, and my mom's friend said it looks like she is standing straight up but horizontally (if that makes any sense at all). Anyways, I just had to post some proof that my belly really does go straight out to the front. It does not veer at all to either side.

From the front...

And from the back now, ya'll...

 I don't really have much of a waist, but still, you get the point.

So for all you haters out there, my belly may seem huge (and I guess it kind of is) but it seems a lot bigger because it is all distributed in one area.

So There!

:)

37 Weeks.

Today I am exactly 37 weeks along. 

Only 3 weeks left, and you better believe I am ready to be done!

Here's a picture for my mom...

(I look humongous from the side. I seriously carry straight out to the front.)

We had another doctors appointment today, just like we do every week. Everything is still right on track. The doc says that the baby is still growing but that she will probably be a petite little baby.

The smaller the better if you ask me ;)

(At least as far as getting her out goes. She can chunk up after that.)

Ray thinks that she will come a week early, but I think she will come pretty close to her due date.

Everything else has been pretty much right on target. Like our ultrasounds--she measured exactly to the day. And every doctors appointment I'm told that I am "right on track."

She follows the rules.... aw.. she's gonna be a little angel.

We will see who is right...

St. Patty's Day.

My family had a quirky little tradition when I was growing up. Every St. Patrick's Day my parents would wake up and make us a green breakfast. My Dad is an excellent breakfast maker so it could get pretty elaborate. We would have green eggs, green pancakes, green milk, green syrup... you get the picture. 

It is kind of a funny little tradition, but it was always one of my favorites. So... I decided to keep it going with my little family. I am definitely not as good at making breakfast as my dad is so mine was toned down quite a bit, but it was still a lot of fun!

(The culprit)

I even made Ray his own pot of gold...

(Ha!)

I got the idea here.

Mmmm... Yum!

Happy St. Patricks Day!

I hope all you little leprechaun's wore your green today!!

Showers!

In February my mom threw me a family/friends shower in Cedar. It was an open house with soup and salad and lots of yummy treats! We had a great turnout and I was seriously spoiled with all the fun stuff I got.  

These are the darling invitations my sister-in-law, Mindi, made...

The treats....

I got a bit distracted and didn't do very good at taking pictures, but here is one Josi snapped of my big belly...

Then yesterday my friend Kaci threw me a ward/friends shower up here in Poky. She was awesome and she definitely went all out! We had chicken salad sandwiches and once again, lots of yummy treats. The decorations were beautiful, we had another great turnout and I got so many fun things!

The Invitations... (so stinkin' cute!!)

So pretty!

The cute carriage Kaci got for me. It is so cute! I can't wait to put it up in Addie's room.

Thanks so much to my Mom and Kaci for throwing me the showers! And thanks to all the wonderful people who came! I am so lucky to have such great people in my life! I think we now have everything we need for when miss Addie gets here.

What's in a name?

As most of you know, we have decided to name our little princess...

or "Addie" for short.

This is kind of a random name so I just want to explain where it came from. It's kind of fun.

Ray has always wanted to name his little girl Adelaide. Why? You ask.

Well, his favorite band, Anberlin, sings a song called Adelaide. 

He loves the song and has always loved the name.

My mom fell in love with the name as well.

I, on the other hand, took some convincing. For several reasons...

(1) I thought it sounded like Lemonade.

(2) I LOVE boy names for girls... maybe it is because I have a boy name, who knows, but Ray was absolutely not having that.

(3) Adelaide is a long name and so most people will know her as Addie. My full name being Danielle, but most people knowing me as Dani was kind of annoying at times. Like, for instance, every year on the first day of school when the teacher does roll call and your name is called, instead of just saying here,  you have to interrupt the teacher to tell them your prefer to go by Dani/Addie. Kind of lame, I know. But  that's how I felt.

(4) Addie is an EXTREMELY popular name right now. I'm afraid she will be one of like 15 Addie's in her grade. Just like I went to school with like 15 different Ashlee/Ashley's. (I'm not dissing on the name Ashlee/Ashley. I will redeem myself later.)

So how did I come to love the name? You are probably thinking that Ray and my mom ganged up on me and forced me to like the name. But that's not the case... well, maybe it kind of was. Ok, totally kidding. Here is what really happened....

(1) We were bringing our cows off of the mountain when we ran into a little white toyota corolla driving down the road. Well, if any of you have ever been to our cabin you know it is not the place for little cars. We are basically at the end of the road--a long, bumpy road at that. Come to find out, the girl driving the little white corolla was BEYOND lost and almost out of gas. When we stopped to talk to her she burst into tears... the poor thing. So we took her under our wing. She had the cutest little accent and when we asked her where she was from she told us Adelaide, Australia. My mom and Ray were convinced it was a sign. But if that wasn't enough.... when I explained that my husband wanted to name our little girl Adelaide because his favorite band sings a song.. yada, yada, yada. She said oh yeah, its Anberlin, they are my favorite band too.

It was fate.

(2) The more I looked for names, the more Adelaide kept popping into my head. So I looked into it and found some interesting facts:

• The meaning of Adelaide is "noble kind". 
• The name was imported to England by Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, later Queen Adelaide, the wife of William IV of Great Britain. The city Adelaide in Australia was named after her. 
• In contemporary literature of the time, Adelaide was frequently used as a name for upper-class, elegant women.
• St Adelaide of Italy lived in the tenth century. She was heir to the throne of Italy and married Otto the Great, Holy Roman Emperor. She was made a saint on account of her good deeds towards the poor.
• Adelaide of Aquitaine was the wife of French king Hugh Capet, the founder of the Capetian dynasty.

Needless to say, the name Adelaide started to seem much more elegant and much less like Lemonade.

(3) Our family friend named Ashlee (who's name was very common growing up) said she still loved her name because A names are so pretty to write (I totally agree with her there). This made me realize that if she can have a common name and still love it, then so can Addie. Plus, every single Ashlee/Ashley that I know turned out just fine even with a common name. Actually they turned out more than fine. I love them all to death. 

And the icing on the cake...

(4) One night I had a dream where we named her Adelaide/Addie, and it just sort of stuck.

I love the name now, and am so excited for our very own Princess Adelaide to get here!

Update.

So I have been struggling a little bit with this whole blogging thing. Mostly because I have been struggling at remembering to take pictures. I'm thinking being big and pregnant has something to do with this?

Anyways, here is a little update of our lives the last little while. Sorry about the lack of pictures.

I am still pregnant. Very pregnant. And if I ever start to forget how big I am getting, people are always very good at reminding me :) Ray has been very cute about it, though. Maybe one of these days I will decide to post a picture for you... or maybe not. We will see.

Addie is to the point now where we can pretty much make her kick on que. Ray loves it. He always "plays" with her. He will poke at her and she always kicks him right back. It is pretty fun.

It is easy to tell that we are all kind of excited. The little thing isn't here yet, but she already has a nickname... it is is Little Miss Addie Pants. My dad started calling her that one day and it just kind of stuck. I love it.

Ray is still going to school and working, and I am still working. Whether or not I continue to work after I have the baby is still up in the air. My boss has been really awesome about the whole deal and is willing to work with me. I am very grateful for that. Ray worked it out with Albertson's so that he will be able to transfer down to St. George and work there for two months out of the summer. We are pretty stoked about this. My little brother just bought a house and since he is getting deployed in June he is going to let us live there. As much as we HATE that he has to go, it will be nice to have somewhere to live where we can still just be our own little family.

In January I got to go on a fabulous trip to Georgia... post is below.

In February I drove to provo to watch all of our people at state wrestling. Ty, Dusty, Cody, and Chris. Ty ended up placing 4th, which is awesome for a freshmen! Way to go Ty-guy! The only person he lost to was Dusty. Dusty, who is also a freshmen, took state. He had an undefeated season. So cool! And Cody, who is a senior, took state for the second year in a row! His record was 53-1. Yeah... these guys are good. And let's not forget Chris (Dusty and Cody's dad). He is the new coach at Cedar High and he led them to one of the best seasons in Cedar High School history. He also won 3A coach of the year. He totally deserved it! Needless to say, it was really fun to watch and I was so proud of all our people :)

The next weekend my mom threw me a baby shower down in Cedar. It was so good to see everyone and I was seriously spoiled with all the fun stuff I got. More of this to come in a later post.

And last, but not least.. Friday was my dad's 52nd birthday! So a very happy birthday to one of the greatest people I know! I love you dad!

That pretty much gets us up to date. I promise I will do better. I'm sure it will be lots easier when I have a cute little girl to take lots of pictures of!

Georgia.

In January I got to go to on a little girls trip to Georgia. Brett was still at basic and we figured that we needed to go visit before he left. It was such a fun trip and I absolutely fell in LOVE with Georgia. We spent a couple days in Charleston, SC and a couple days in Savannah, GA. Both are such pretty cities. Seriously, they really are pretty. The houses are all beautiful and there is just tons of heritage and culture. If anyone is ever looking for a fun place to vacation, I would definitely recommend this. And a ghost tour is an absolute must. They are so fun! Oh and make sure to get some fried green tomatoes... yum!

I totally regret not taking more pictures. Most of the pictures I took don't even have us in them, but here are a few, nonetheless.

This is a picture of the Colonial Park Cemetery in Savannah. During the civil war a bunch of soldiers stayed in this cemetery. They got a little bored so they would change dates and stuff on the headstones. When we walked around we saw one that said the guy was 700 years old. Another said the person had 90 kids. It was pretty cool.

This next one is the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. As you can see, it is pretty stunning.

This next one we just happened to pass on some random road. Brett was driving and the rest of us were sleeping. When he saw this he yelled "Mater!", slammed on the brakes, and pulled over so he could get a picture.  It woke us all up pretty quick and once we figured out what all the commotion was about we got a pretty good laugh. We sure do love ya Brett!

We saw so many more cool things that and ate at lots of yummy restaurants. I'm such a dummy for not taking more pictures, but it really was a super fun trip! Thanks Mom and Grandma for letting me come along!