Bountiful Baskets...

Oliver and I have joined a food co-op. It's amazing! Not only does it save money, buy organic and local produce, but it is a huge time saver. We ordered our fruit and veggie share on Monday and then it took less than 3 minutes to pick it up Saturday morning. Our $15 produce share bought all the following...
8 ears of corn on the cob, 5 sweet potatoes, 4 yellow squash, broccoli, 6 Roma tomatoes, 1 yellow onion and a head of lettuce. AND

A pineapple, 8 Fuji apples, 6 oranges, blackberries, strawberries, and 8 bananas.

Then in addition to our normal produce share we bought a case of mangoes for $8.50 and...

8 pounds of strawberries for $8!

Last night for dinner we had such yummy food and it is so much easier to eat fruits and veggies all day when we have a variety, plenty, and a fresh selection. I'm excited for our new food co-op! We also couldn't buy that much stuff at the grocery store for such a good price - or so quickly. LOVE IT!

Tragedy

Utah's Hogle Zoo says its 8-month-old giraffe, Jamar, was found dead in his enclosure over the weekend.

The baby giraffe was popular with visitors and staff after his birth last summer at the zoo.

Jamar apparently died early Sunday. Hogle Zoo veterinarians performed a necropsy and cited "failure to thrive" as the cause of death.

Inexperienced first-time mothers, like Jamar's mother Kipenzi, can have a weak maternal instinct. Zoo staff also say Jamar was an independent baby.

Staff say Jamar was at a critical weaning period in the transition from nursing to solid foods.I'm going to be a first time mom and my baby might be independent but I sure hope that I don't have weak maternal instincts....good thing small humans are a little more resilient right?

Do you think the editor kept their job?

Zoo-time Fun!

It's been almost 8 months since the last time we went to the zoo. But last year our zoo had all sorts of baby animals born and it was a blast. I love going to the zoo! I imagine that over the coming years it will become more and more fun as we grow our little family. Here are some pics of all the new animals that were born at our zoo last year.

The elephant Zuri (female): born August 10, 2009 at Hogle Zoo to Christie and father, Jackson (Pittsburgh Zoo).
The giraffe Baby Jamar (male): born July 30, 2009 at Hogle Zoo to Riley and Kipenzi (both living at the Hogle Zoo).
The three tiger cubs (my favorite) (all male): born June 2, 2009 at Hogle Zoo to Kazek and Basha (living at the Hogle zoo)named, Bronevik, Vikentii and Kirill.
And the snow leopard, Baby Himal (male): born May 7, 2009 at Hogle Zoo to Himesh and Nema (living at the Hogle Zoo).
Poor elephant was the only girl born last summer but it made for a very fun and exciting trip to the zoo. And, as usual, Oliver and I didn't take any pictures of the two of us, but we were running around and just as excited as any other child there that day.

Amazing Technology...

Friday we went to have our ultrasound done. They had just installed their brand new machine that morning which meant two things, first, we couldn't get a copy of our ultrasound on DVD or VHS because it wasn't hooked up yet, but second, that the picture was amazing. I was watching it on a project TV screen while Oliver and his mom watched the tech's screen. They say that it was amazing and the detail they could see was far better than what I saw. They even got to see the blood flow in color.Hand by face...
Crazy skeleton looking face...
Another profile with hand by face...
One of Oliver's favorite pics was the cute little foot...
And, we are happy to report that our child has not yet learned the importance of modesty. So for the first, and possibly last time of her life, we are posting a picture of her personal business for all the world to see. :) The three white lines indicate that she is a she (the labia and vaginal opening).

We are very happy and excited and will now embark on picking her name....ask us in August what we chose and will let you know when you meet her. Until then, by suggestion of my dad, we are lovingly calling her baby X.

Goodbye...

I decided it was time to clean out my closet. I can't stand to wake up in the morning, walk in the closet, and look at a bunch of clothes that don't fit. Since we have plenty of storage space in our house I am able to get them out of my closet, out of sight and out of mind. I have always struggled with my weight and I find it very discouraging to look at clothes that USED to fit and USED to be cute when I wore them. So I just packed them up and put them in boxes in the storage room downstairs. Now this is the current state of my closet. Empty skirt hangers...
And a ton of empty hangers!
Maybe I'll have to go shopping....or maybe I'll have to actually fold my laundry....hehehehe

Thanksgiving!

I got a roaster from my in-laws for my birthday. Seeing how I have borrowed theirs three times in the past two years - I was super excited! It is the best way to cook a turkey because then I can still use my oven to make rolls, roasted carrots, pie, sweet potato souffle, etc.
Kyle was just as excited about my gift as I was! Until he got stuck in the box and couldn't get his legs out from under the flaps...
And since we have the cutest nephew you could ask for - here are some more pics. He had to go to the doctor that day and wasn't feeling well but he is the best baby - and you would have barely noticed he wasn't feeling well AT ALL.

And here is our Thanksgiving table with really bad lighting. I'm too lazy to photshop fix it right now - but you get the idea.
We had homemade grape juice, pretzel salad, yummy homemade rolls (which I am still dreaming about), turkey, mashed potatoes (which weren't that good - I messed them up), stuffing, gravy, roasted carrots, a veggie tray, sweet potato souffle and pie! We ate it all on my grandparents wedding china and silver which they gave to Oliver and I as a wedding gift. My grandma never broke one piece in the 60 years they had it! I have had it for two years and so far all is well. We also laugh about how plate sizes were much smaller back then - but for Thanksgiving it turns out not to be a bad thing because my eyes are always bigger than my stomach.
Our dad flew in late on Thanksgiving day so that we could all celebrate with our Utah families that day and then my sister and her family came over on Friday to eat like champions again for our small little family gathering. It was a lot of fun and a whole lot of work. I didn't know that I was barely pregnant and I sure wasn't sick yet so cooking ALL DAY LONG was actually a lot of fun. Hopefully next year my sister and I will be happy to not be pregnant any longer and have a little more energy to get it all done. YUM!

Putting together nursery furniture....

This weekend Oliver and I drove to all sorts of baby stores to look at crib furniture, changing tables, etc. Who knew that people would really spend $500 on a crib? (No offense intended if that's you - I just am saving my money for a sweet rocker!) So, we price matched and compared and then remembered our Gerber friends who bought their nursery in a box 2 years ago. We went to look at them and there are none set up at the store, but I remember thinking that her's was cute and looked functional. So we decided to buy it, take it home and set it up, and then we still have enough time if we end up not liking it to get something different. Plus, you can't find a crib, changing table and dresser for $200 any other way - so our adventure began. All of these pieces are going to turn into a dresser, changing table and crib.
Here is Oliver setting up the crib. We decided to set it up in the living room where we have the most space. I'm sure those of you with experience realize the error in this judgment. Would have been nice to know that it wasn't going to fit through the doorway and into the nursery.... I called my mom at 9:30 that night to tell her it wouldn't fit through the door and she laughed and said she could have told us that 2 hours ago. So we un-assembled it, moved into the nursery, and re-assembled it. (Notice my empty coke slurpee cup in the background - YUM!)
We then set up the changing table, which actually fits perfectly in the hallway bathroom. It's as if they made that extra space just for a changing table.
Fits right behind the door - pretty cool huh?
We might actually go and get another changing table just to have one in the bathroom as well because I really think that we need the changing table for the bedroom. So for now we intend to keep the set (I forgot to take a picture of the dresser) and put our saved money toward something else.

And don't worry, while walking around Babies R Us this weekend we realized that there is always going to be "something else".

Nothing New

So I was scrolling down my blog today and I realized I have 8 followers. Poor followers! They are probably tired of me waiting to post an update about our not exciting lives. So, here is some catch-up from the end of last year that I haven't been able to get to.

I had a birthday at the end of November and my wonderful husband bought me flowers.

Aren't they purty?

I love the hot chili pepper and the warm yummy fall arrangement.

Almost nothing beats fresh flowers!

Yes, this is she.

My cell phone just vibrated at my work desk so I picked it up -

Me: Hello?
Caller: Is this Heidi Hansen?
Me: Yes, this is she.
Caller: This is Wxxxx Bxxxxxxx, a special investigator with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Silence...dead silence...gulp - um - okay...
My brain and stomach go - WHAT THE HECK DID I DO?

She explains why she's callings, sets an appointment to come to my work tomorrow and meet with me, and everything is totally fine and kosher - but why is my guilt complex the first thing to kick in? I'm really not a bad girl, I don't do horrible things - I'm just quick to assume the worst and feel like I'm being hauled off to federal prison.

I seriously have watched to many episodes of 24 and Criminal Minds and Law & Order - I need to stop watching TV and remember I'm a good girl...really, I promise, I am...

(at least my grammar was correct - I tell you I am a good girl)

Our World is Changing

I'd say this makes it pretty official - however over the last several weeks I have had no doubt everyday that I am pregnant because of all the throw up :) Today it has a heartbeat of 170 bpm which some are thinking it's a girl because of the rate - but we'll have to wait and see...

The addition is said to be arriving August 4th - give or take whenever the little child feels like coming. My aunt pointed out that it is easier to deal with the constant vomitting then it is to deal with a new child - so I'll be glad for 7 more months of fun and change.

Yeah for our new adventure - we are feeling very blessed and excited!

Up On The Rooftop

On the morning of my birthday (Nov 21) it was supposed to be snowing. Oliver has a huge aversion to putting up the Christmas lights on the house when there is snow on the ground. This could have something to do with his falling off the two-story roof of our townhouse two years ago...

When we awoke, we realized that it wasn't snowing yet and we thought that it would probably be the last Saturday without snow for awhile so we anxiously put up our lights.



Oliver worked from up on the roof and I worked from the ladder and we got them up, went to the store to buy more, and finished with hot chocolate in a little over two hours. Since then we have had to unstring and restring one strand that we blew out. But, we love the way they look and if I can remember I will take a picture at night - especially since we now have a ton of beautiful white snow!

A Little Outdated....but Who Cares?

Every year we've been married we have gone to the pumpkin patch to pick our pumpkins. I don't know what happened this year - but I just didn't care that much and so we got them from WINCO! Talk about a steal of a deal - we paid $7.29 for 7 pumpkins and our largest one weighed more than 30 lbs!

We carved our pumpkins with neighbors and friends the night before Halloween.
I apparently have a thing for spider webs since this is the second one I've made in three years...
Oliver decided to use the power drill this year and different sized attachments to puncture holes all over his pumpkin.
We are still loving our home and pictures of Christmas decorations and lights will be coming soon!

We Did It Again

We decided that flooding our basement once just wasn't enough. So we started the dishwasher and left our home to head out for family dinner at Oliver's parents. We came home 5 or 6 hours later to a beeping dishwasher and a steady waterfall in the basement. Oliver instantly knew what that sound meant and went running to turn off the water into the house.

Very shortly this little guy became our best friend. After one phone call we had out house swarming with concerned neighbors and friends to help us start mucking out the mess.
The water damage rippled the paint in our wall and ruined the drywall and carpet.
Over the following several days Oliver ripped out drywall and insulation and wet carpet and pad and even enjoyed it a little.
Luckily there is a window right next to the mess and so we just tossed everything out onto the back patio.
And what didn't fit in the garbage can the first week waited for its turn a different week.
It was a mess but luckily the weather was nice and it was even still a little warm.

And if you stay tuned I will take more pics of the remodel job that has been done (we now have canned lighting in our basement!).
Ah, the joys of home ownership.