Happy Independance Day!!

I love, love, LOVE the 4th of July!  It's one of the few holidays where I can wear all the stars I want and won't get too many weird looks ha ha :)  We spent the evening at one of Luke's coworker's house for a BBQ.  I made a flag cake for the occasion (which had caused me some minor frustration...more on that in a bit though) and we brought hot dogs and some fireworks to share. Carlos was all cute in his 4th of July outfit :D His shirt says, "Baby's First 4th".

I did my eye makeup with a festive flare :)

So, about the cake...I baked it according to the directions, following all the details. When it came time to get it out of the pan that is when disaster struck.  I flipped it over onto one of my cookies sheets, but when I did so I put it too close to one of the edges.  Me being the "bright one" instantly tried to pick up the cake and reposition it.  BAD IDEA!  It broke in half and instead of waiting a bit longer for it to cool more I continued to try to pick it up...the result was a very broken cake.  At first I was so distraught that I didn't want to even try to fix it, but after waiting a few minutes I changed my mind and went about fixing the cake.  Frosting is an excellent glue in case anyone was curious ha ha.  After 2 cans of frosting and some decorating it was all done! Here's the final result (since I didn't take any pics of the disaster):

It was a big hit too!  Fudge Chocolate Cake with Vanilla frosting, blackberries and raspberries for the toppings.  No one mentioned if they noticed the mishap after cutting into the cake (and I wasn't about to tell everyone what happened either ha ha).  I'm glad that I didn't give up on it.

We set off some fireworks after it got dark out.  We brought ground blooms and sparklers and a big fountain one called The Super Bullet (it was way lame though...definitely did NOT live up to it's name in my opinion).  We also bought a couple Hummer shaped ones (similar to tanks) and Luke modified the name to be Bronco #1 and Bronco #2.  He did that because 2 of the people at the BBQ were way into Broncos and both of them owned one each.  So we had a Bronco Battle (ha ha).  They turned out to be pretty neat.  After setting all the fireworks on fire it was getting pretty late and Carlos was getting super fussy and sleepy so we headed home.  Carlos is now in bed and Luke passed out on the couch so I guess I better go to bed myself.  Night everyone!  Happy 4th!! :D

~Nicole

Vacation is a beautiful thing :) (part 2)

Our next adventure was going to Utah to see my family and have Luke meet as many people from my side as possible within 15 days. We spent about 9 days with my Dad's parents (Gma and Gpa Johnston). We played lots of Mexican Train and other board games with them and went to a couple movies (the new Disney's A Christmas Carol (which was a bit scary I might add) and The Blind Side (which was AmAzInG!)). Gma and Gpa held an open house for us on the 22nd so that as many people from the Johnston side could come and meet Luke and spend some time with us. It was really great to see those that came and meet a couple people that had married into the family! I hope that we can come back and visit more often in the future.

We went up to Logan for a day and saw a few people from the Wegener clan. We went to lunch at Frederico's (the best pizza place in UT in my opinion) and we went to dinner at the Olive Garden. It was so awesome to see them and have them be able to meet Luke. Again I hope to be able to visit more often once the baby is born and such.

The last bit of our vacation was spent with my Mom and that side of the fam. my sister got engaged over the weekend before Thanksgiving so we got to meet her fiance for the first time while we were with Mom's family. He seems like a really good guy and I'm happy for them both. The only major drawback is that we won't be able to attend their wedding since it's in March which is too close to my due date :( I hate living so far away that we miss out on so many important events, but such is life.

I went with the girls to the New Moon movie on the 25th and thought it was pretty good. Much, much better than the first one that's for sure! Even though Edward gets Bella in the end, Jacob is pretty freakin hott in that movie! Almost all the women in the theater squealed when he took his shirt off ha ha.

We spent Thanksgiving at the Morton's this year (since that's where Mom and the fam go every year). It was nice seeing people I hadn't seen in years. Luke bonded with those that were into football (esp Fantasy Football) since the game was on downstairs ha ha. Mom and I went shopping on Black Friday, but we were not crazy and slept in instead of getting up at the crack of dawn. It was still pretty intense out there at 11:30 am though. We spent about 2 hrs in Old Navy alone (30 min shopping and 1 1/2 hrs in line to checkout)! After that we went to the mall which wasn't as bad followed by Walmart which was really calm. All in all I got alot of stuff for a pretty good price and I didn't have to sacrifice any sleep for it :) Luke made spaghetti for dinner that night and everyone loved it! He's so much better at cooking than I am. I'm a pretty lucky girl :)

Saturday night we went to Temple Square to see the lights since Luke has never been here and it's been YEARS since I've gone to see them. They weren't as great as I remember, but it was still neat to go see them.

Luke and I at Temple Square

The last couple days were spent doing laundry and packing. Luke spent Sunday night in his hotel since he had class early the next day. I had to get up early to go to the airport. My flights were alright as far as flights go. They were fast too. In fact, if my flight from LAX to Honolulu wasn't delayed we would have been super early (we were still early anyway though). It was so good to have gotten the chance to take this vacation! Just 2 more months and then it will be like I'm on a permanent one! And all my time will be spent preparing for our little one and then being a Mom :)

I had a doctors appointment today and got to schedule my ultrasound. It's on the 28th! Which is a ways away, but I wanted Luke to be there for it so that's when it had to be scheduled for. Hopefully the baby cooperates so that we can find out what gender it is! As long as I don't drink caffeine or sugary stuff like juice right before the appointment and stay relaxed then I think things will go just dandy. Apparently the baby is a wiggler since the doctor had some issues getting the heartbeat today. As soon as she found it the baby would move and all you would hear is this whooshing sound ha ha. But she eventually caught the heartbeat long enough. 150 bpm is how fast it's little heart is beating :) I recently (as in this last week) started noticing the "fluttering" as they call it. It feels like air bubbles in my tummy. Soon it will be kicking instead of fluttering. I can't believe that I'm 21 wks already! How time has flown! Here's a pic of me at 20 wks (on Thanksgiving).


Anyway, this past month has made me realize how important family is to me. And I wish we didn't live so far away. Missing out on all the fun things sucks alot, but someday we will live closer (I hope!). Until then we will just have to visit as often as we can. Sorry if we didn't get to see everyone while we were there! Hopefully our next trip we can! Love you all!

~Nicole