New House - Heather Rd

Nate, Colby and I moved to a new house last week!! We are still in Orem, just a few minutes north west of our old house. I will share more pictures when we are done decorating, but I know a few people have been asking to see pictures. Plus I want to remember it as it is now -- I will take pictures of the basement when it isn't as bad as it is now, it needs new carpet and more!

To Colby

Colby-

Your mother is far better at writing down memories than I am but I feel as though I should write about my feelings from when I first found out that you were going to be joining our family to this morning when I woke up to calm you down and let mom get some more sleep.

When we found out that we were going to have a baby I had two feelings- unparalleled excitement and unparalleled fear.  First I want to talk about the excitement.

I didn’t know if you were going to be a boy or girl yet but I didn’t care.  I knew that you and I were going to be best friends and that we were going to learn new things and go on adventures together.  I knew that you and I were going to have times where we laughed so hard we cried.  I knew that we would learn from each other and help each other become better in every way.  I knew that you would motivate me to work harder, be better, and love deeper.  I knew that you would be an example to your future siblings.

But there was also what I didn’t know.
I didn’t know how I would be able to protect you from all the terrible things on this earth.  I didn’t know how I would be able to make sure you always had everything you needed.  I didn’t know how I would be able to share the love I have for your mother with you.  I didn’t know how to be the example you would need.  I didn’t know how I would teach you things that even I didn’t fully understand.

My excitement matched my fear.  Every time we went to have a digital look at your progress I was always filled with this fear and excitement.  After waiting for far too long we finally arrived at the day where you and I were able to meet.

Your mother was incredible.  After months and months of physical torment she pushed through the final pain to bring you where we could both hold you together.  It was incredible seeing you for the first time.  You had hair!  You had beautiful eyes!  You were already impressing the nurses with your long arms and legs.  One of the nurses even said that you would be an amazing basketball player!
 
You made me so proud.  You went through such a terrifying moment with so many dramatic changes and you calmed down so that we could hold you for the first time.  Feeling your skin touch ours was indescribable.  When I first looked into your big eyes I knew I was overwhelmed with emotion.
 
The longer I held you the more excitement and fear I had.  I will have that excitement and fear for the rest of my life but as the months have gone by the fear has been overcome by the excitement and replaced with a deep calm.

Why calm?  Because I know in my heart that while I may not be able to overcome all of the fears that I have for you I know that I will try as hard as I am physically, mentally, and spiritually able to.  If I give you everything I have in my being I know that you will be happy, safe, and strong.
  
Love other people- even the ones that seem to seem to only want to hurt others.  They need love the most.  Protect yourself and those you love.  Protect that which you know to be true.  Learn new things.  Challenge yourself.  Challenge the known and unknown of this world.  Never be afraid to fail.  Never be afraid to try.

I love you Colby and I am so proud of you.  I am going to make sure I spend my life making sure you know that.

2014 Goals

I have made some goals for the next year.... things I want to focus on, things I want to do. And of course the number one thing on my list is to give birth to a healthy baby boy this May.

At this point I think I would be okay with baby boy coming a few days late just because it would give us some more time to plan and Nate a little more time to look for a job after he graduates at the beginning of that month. But I'm sure as I get closer and closer I will be ready to have him out of me. And really, I already wish I could give him a little snug.

But anyway, here is my list of goals for the year, they may change as life changes. But this is what I want to do.

Health:
1) Give birth to a healthy baby boy
2) Go to the dentist
3) Get my eyes checked
4) Run a 5k
5) Eventually get back to pre pregnancy weight

Money:
1) Have xxx in savings (you don't need to know how much money we have)
2) Pay at least 5,000 towards student loan debt

Spiritual:
1) Go to the temple at least 2 times
2) Pay a full tithe
3) Read the Book of Mormon

Blog:
1) Get blog to at least 150,000 views a month
2) Get at least $500 a month from blog ads or sponsored posts

House:
1) Clean out baby room closet
2) Take extra clothes and misc items to DI
3) Paint baby room
4) Paint guest room
5) Organize under the stairs - add a light

Extra:
1) Take a cooking class
2) Read 10 books

And that's all I've got for right now. I think its good to have things for us to focus on and work towards even if we don't accomplish our goals exactly to the T. I just know I want to improve myself this year to make myself a better person, a better wife and a good mama!

Baby BOY!

We went to the doctor this morning for my ultrasound. We were anxious to find out if our little gnocchi is a boy or a girl, but even more anxious to find out that the baby is healthy.

The ultrasound tech did lots of measurements of baby as we looked around in there to see how he's growing. Measured his brain, the distance from my placenta to cervix, his spine and more. And while we were looking around we saw that our little baby is in fact a HE!

As we were looking around in there the tech showed us something and said "there is no question about the gender on this one" as we saw our little man with his little man parts. I won't post a picture, because I don't want him to be embarrassed one day about it being online!

I could have sworn this little one was going to be a girl - so, so much for having mother's intuition on that one. We couldn't be more thrilled that it will be a boy joining our family. Having an older watchful older brother just seems like the best option, and hopefully he will be a great example to our other future children.

I do hope however that we don't get stuck with the 4 boys like Nate's parents did, I really do want a little girl one day!

We have a few names in mind, but haven't decided on one just yet. And I'm not sure if we will decide before he's born or not, and even if we do, I'm not sure if we will share it or not, because I don't want any negative thoughts about our choices.

Tonight we are going to Babies R Us to look for a crib, and hopefully a cute first outfit for our little guy - as I currently own ZERO boy baby clothes!

I can't wait to meet this little man in just about 19 weeks (he was measuring 2 days ahead of our due date in size, so I wonder when he will actually come) but hope he grows a little bit more until then, as he's not even 1 pound yet!

Ps. Sorry we didn't do a cute gender reveal, we were too excited to wait and not tell everyone right away. So here's our big announcement!

2013 in Review

2013 has been another great year for the Nate Berrett family. We didn't go on a "summer trip" this year, but we were able to go camping a few times, work is still good for both of us, school is good for Nate, we are having a baby next year and life is good.

Here are some of our highlights from the year (Not in any particular order):

1) Dain and Ash got married! On June 14th, Nate's older brother Dain got married to Ash. It was a beautiful wedding and a beautiful day and I am so happy to have the two of them in my life. Its so fun to have them live in Utah also so that we are able to do stuff with them often!

2) I ran a half marathon! In July a pioneer day half marathon up in Farmington. I prepared a lot for it, though the farthest I ran before the actual race was about 8.5 miles, I was able to finish the half marathon under my goal time of 2.5 hours (just barely - I finished it in 2:26) and without walking at all!

3)We hiked to the top of Mt. Timpanogos. Since I moved to Utah 7 years ago I have wanted to hike to the top of Mt. Timpanogos. Finally this summer Nate and I were able to do it. The Mountain peak is at 11,752 feet and the hike was pretty excruciating, especially cause we thought there would be more water/rivers along the way, but we made it to the top and back down (which was even harder for me) and I am so glad we did it!

4) We're having a baby! Due May 16, 2014 baby Berrett should make his/her appearance! We couldn't feel more blessed to become parents to this sweet little one and can't wait to find out the gender in two days!

5) We went to Virginia for Thanksgiving! We were able to get a couple days of work and fly out to Virginia for the Thanksgiving holiday. Lots of good food was eaten, lots of gaming was done, and most of all we enjoyed spending so much time with family!

6) We spent Christmas in California! We were able to spend Christmas with my parents were we got totally spoiled by each other, our parents and everyone else with lots of fantastic gifts! We also got to go to SeaWorld, the San Diego Safari Park, the dog beach, see extended family, reunite with friends, and have a blast playing lots of new games we got as presents!

As you can see, 2013 was a really great year for us but I have a feeling 2014 is going to be even better!

Baby Berrett - Coming May 2014

If you aren't my friend on facebook, instagram, or a follower of my food blog then maybe you don't already know. But guess what?! Nate and I are expecting a baby!

I am a little over 14 weeks pregnant right now and this little one should be fully cooked around May 16. We are so thrilled to become parents, and its very surreal that there is a little one growing inside of me now. (So much that I often doubt that the baby is still there). However, I have been feeling a little sick, less so in the last couple weeks thankfully. And baby should now be the size of a lemon.

Because it was requested by a certain friend, I will tell you how we found out we were pregnant. Nate and I wanted to have a baby born in May of next year or later. But because Nate graduates school at the very beginning of May we were nervous to "start trying" too soon, not knowing how quickly or how long it would take us to get pregnant, but wanting to err on the side of later was better for us.

I'll get to the nitty gritty and say I got off of birth control at the beginning of August. But we fully expected it would take a few months to get it out of my system and to get back into a regular cycle that we would actually be able to start trying.

I have a very personal journal that I keep for myself on Evernote. No one else has access to that account and its nice to be able to write out my very personal thoughts and feelings there. Things that I want to remember but don't need to share with the whole world.

I don't know the exact date that I got pregnant since it did happen so quickly for us and I didn't ever have a regular period off of birth control to know how long my cycles are. But based on our baby being due May 16th, I got pregnant around Aug 23rd.

Well, on August 22nd I wrote in my personal online journal that I felt a little sick. I wrote: "This morning after my run and on my way to work, I felt a little sick. A little sick like I needed to eat something, but I'm sure I'm over analyzing this. I ate a granola bar when I got to work and I feel good now... it can't be morning sickness. Right?"

For the next few days after I wrote in my journal that I was over analyzing things, cause even if I was pregnant then I could maximum be about a week along (and I actually was only maybe a day or two) so I shouldn't have felt any symptoms, and maybe they were unrelated. But I was still a little suspicious.

We bought a pregnancy test finally on Sept 7, a two pack set. I planned to wait to take the test in the morning when my urine would be stronger. We were too nervous to wait, so I went ahead and took the test. It says to wait 3 minutes to look at the test and see the results, so I left the test on the bathroom counter and left the room and set a timer to wait. Nate went back into the bathroom before the time was up. But he looked at it anyway, and it said pregnant!

We were both still a little skeptical I think, so I took the second test Sunday (the next day) morning and it said positive again. Although I had felt like I could be pregnant early on, once I saw the "pregnant" test results I doubted it. I thought something was wrong, that someone the hormones from my birth control were still in my body and throwing the results off or that I had done the test wrong, or that I had a brain tumor. I wanted to take a test every day to make sure I was really pregnant and still pregnant every day.

I was nervous that I would miscarry also, and am still nervous that something could happen. I took a third and fourth pregnancy test of different brands to make sure it still said positive the next week and of course they did.

We went to the doctor around 8 weeks, still not knowing how far along we were. I wanted Nate to go cause I thought there might be a small chance we would be able to hear the heartbeat. Nate was able to come with me, which I was glad for the comfort, but still assumed it would be a basic appointment with blood tests and things to check my health in general. At the end the doctor said "okay, we'll do the ultrasound now" and we were both shocked. We saw our little frog in there measuring about 1.37 centimeters at the time and heard the heart beat and it made it a lot more real that there was/is actually a little human being growing inside of me.

I am so thrilled to be growing this little one inside of me. I can't wait to find out the gender, though I really think its a girl (maybe I'll say more on that in another post), although we usually refer to it as a he. We should find out the gender of the baby the week after Christmas.

I also can't wait to have my belly pop out (more) if you look at these pictures, it looks like its growing a little already. And to feel this little one move around inside of me.

I can't wait to even more so be the mother of this baby when it actually comes to join our family in May. And I pray all continues to go well for me and this sweet baby.

Dain and Ash get married!

I haven't been updating this blog lately, and I'm not really sure why. I have been cooking a lot! And I have been writing in my "journal" but not here.

Almost a month ago Nate's older brother Dain got married. Dain and Ash got married on June 14th, 2013. It was a beautiful wedding ceremony, and a great day. They got married down in the Manti temple, and then had a reception at this place in Lindon called Noah's.

I am so happy for them, and so happy to have Ash as my "new sister"!

25 Reasons

Nate turned 25 last month, which makes him a quarter of a century, which means, old, but I am not too far behind. For his birthday, because he always knows what he is going to get, I wanted to do something simple and cute that he would like, that would be a surprise addition to his expected gift. Because he turned 25 I wrote a list of 25 things that I love about him and stuck each thing on a sticker on a mini reeses cup candy. I think he liked it.

Here are 25 reasons why I love Nate!

1. He is handsome
2. He is the best snuggler.
3. He taste tests all my new recipes
4. He calls me beautiful.
5. He helps support our family.
6. He will be the best father.
7. He makes me feel special.
8. He is hilarious and can always make me laugh.
9. He has the best smile.
10. He makes up the best songs.
11. He always takes care of me.
12. He supports me in all my aspirations.
13. He is a great cook.
14. He is the best kisser.
15. He will always protect me.
16. He is my best friend.
17. He is spontaneous.
18. He gives the best gifts.
19. He is a handy man.
20. He accepts me for me.
21. He sends me cute text messages.
22. He is romantic.
23. He is as weird as I am.
24. He is mine.
25. He loves me.

Awwwww <3

Aimee's 100 -- Cooking Bucket List

Its no mystery that I love to cook. Unless you are new here you have to have seen the food blog that I write on with my mom. Like Mother Like Daughter. But I have a problem.

There are so many different recipes I want to cook, how do I ever decide which ones to make first? Just check out my pinterest boards to see how many "food" items I pin.

So after seeing a few different people with bucket lists of foods that they wanted to make, I decided to create my own. The foods that I REALLY want to make. Before I die, but hopefully in the next couple years really. My new bucket list is posted here. And I'll post the recipes on my blog when I make them, and I'll update the list when that happens too. But here are a few of the recipes I am MOST excited to make!

Desserts
2. Apple Strudel
11. Cheesecake Cookies
13. Copy Cat Samoas
16. Eclairs
24. Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake

Frozen Desserts
25. Brownie Batter Ice Cream
32. Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream

Baked Goods
35. Foccaccia Bread
36. Cheddar Garlic Biscuits

Main Dish
46. Pad Thai

Sandwiches
56. German Pancakes
61. Raspberry Rolls

Side Dishes
71. Sweet Potato Fries

Grilled Foods
73. Grilled Pizza

Drinks
77. Egg Nog

Candy
83. Mint Truffles
84. My dad’s Toffee

Sauces, Salsas, Dips and Spreads
97. Jalapeno Jelly
98. Mango Salsa

So, check out my list and let me know if you have any delicious recipes for the foods that I want to make and send them my way!! lmldfood at gmail dot com

:)

Family Photos Nov 2012

In November I won a blog giveaway and won a free photo shoot from Lacey Smith Photography. Of course I am always happy to have my picture taken and I was able to get Nate to agree to it as well.

We went with bright colors, with copper, yellow and blue and figured that would be a good combo to go with the fall colors. We got lucky that the day we wanted to go to Thanksgiving Point was Dog Day and so we got to take Aspen with us to take our pictures.

I love how they turned out and here are a few of my favorites.

 

25 Update

A couple of weeks ago I realized almost 6 months of my year is up. Six months have gone by since I made my 25 goals and I have only fully accomplished TWO of them. Two of twenty five things in 6 months, means I have another 23 to finish off in my remaining 6 months. And the odds are not in my favor. So I gave each goal a time frame for when I want to accomplish it, of course by Aug 17, of this year, but I need to start some of these things NOW.

The two goals I have completely finished are:
 #13 Eat vegetarian for 2 weeks I did that in November and actually went almost 2.5 weeks and
 #16 Dye my hair brown. I also did that in November.

There are a couple other goals I am currently working on:
#2 Read 10 books (I have read 4)
#3 Take a photography class (I am taking a photo class right now through UVU, 4 more weeks to go)
#9 Lose 5 pounds (I am continuing to track my calories and watch what I eat)
#11 Stop biting my nails, for good (They are getting longer, and I am making sure to have them painted almost always)
#17 Study German (About twice a week I go on memrise.com and study)
#18 Sew a blanket/quilt (I finished the top side of my jean blanket, I just need to figure out what do do for the bottom.
#21 Make a compost bin (This one is almost completely done, though Nate should get all the credit - we just need to start composting now)
#23 Don't eat candy for a week (Today is my last day!)

But that still leaves #s 1,4,5,6,7,8,10,12,14,15,19,20,22,24 and 25 completely untouched.

Now that 6 months have gone by I need to stop saying "I have a lot of time left" and start working. Wish me luck!

Christmas 2012

I never thought I would be one of those people who had to catch up on blogging events that happened weeks before. I guess weeks is much better than months.

We flew to Virginia the evening of Friday December 21st, and we got to stay there for a whole 10 days, and then we flew home on January 1st. It was a wonderful trip, and with flights so expensive we are glad we were able to get so much work off and stay there for so long.

A couple weeks before we went to VA my grandmother was diagnosed with leukemia. This meant that Anthony and Jana were going to head to California for Christmas after all. Luckily we were able to spend one day with them on the east coast before the headed west. We exchanged Christmas gifts, I got an awesome "Desserts in Jars" cookbook from them, that I am so excited to try out! We ate lunch at a place called Golden King, which was Chinese food - but a little bit more authentic than what we were used to. I got Sesame Chicken, so it was safe because the chicken was breaded and fried, but chicken with rice and egg ended up not being a fried rice, but instead something like egg drop soup poured on top of rice. What an adventure. Ethan also decided to order duck, for who knows what reason. Afterwards we headed to the bowling alley. We played 2 games, and I think Anthony won both. My score was I think 99 the first game and 100 the second, at least I improved. What is impressive with Anthony winning is he, Jana and I let Zoe bowl 2 or 3 times each during our games. We ended the day with dinner at the Berretts with the whole gang.

Dain flew in on Saturday and Ash flew in Sunday morning. We went to Taylor and Amanda's single's ward for church because they were doing a musical number. Taylor sang a beautiful rendition of "A Cradle in Bethlehem" while Amanda played the piano.

Christmas Eve was spent finishing up errands, getting last minute gifts and stocking stuffers, wrapping presents and playing games. Also Dain and Ash went to DC and got engaged! As a spin off of Nate and my Christmas Eve lunch tradition we went to Wegmann's and everyone got to eat whatever they wanted to eat. I chose a chicken burrito where I got to pick what I put inside, everyone else got Asian food. For Christmas Eve dinner Sandi made her traditional clam chowder and we supplemented that with pizza from Papa Johns.

Before we went to VA I asked Nate about their family traditions. My family didn't have a lot of traditions but there are a few things we did special, and I wanted  to know what to expect that would be different.

Growing up, Christmas morning we would wake up and make some orange juice, fresh squeezed if possible, and start some Pillsbury cinnamon rolls baking, while those were cooking we all went in and opened our stockings. We then ate the cinnamon rolls with our fresh squeezed OJ. Then we would go back to our gifts. I really like opening up presents one at a time, and thankfully the Berretts do that as well - but at my house we would take turns picking a gift from under the tree, but it might not be a gift for ourselves, so then we would give the gift to whoever it was for and watch them open it, we usually picked in order or oldest to youngest, sometimes vice versa. The Berretts separate things into piles for each person, and then go around youngest to oldest opening a present from your pile. I felt very spoiled after opening all our gifts Christmas morning - plus we had opened the gifts from my parents at our house before we left. I got everything I wanted for Christmas plus some. And I loved seeing Nate open the gifts I got for him. Also the Berrett brothers draw names for who they are going to give a gift to for Christmas. I have been included into the drawing, and this year Ash was included as well. I gave to Dain this year, and I hope that he liked what I got him - a fly fishing book about the best places to fish before you die. I think the rest of the day was enjoyed being lazy, eating our stocking spoils, and napping. We skyped with my family in California as well, to wish them a Merry Christmas too. Dinner was spent with Debbie and Pete and we ate ham, potato casserole, rolls, and I don't remember what other goodies - but it was all delicious.

I don't remember which day was which for other parts of the trip. But we all went and saw Les Miserables together, which I personally thought was fantastic. Yes the singing wasn't all perfect, and it was very different from the Broadway versions - but I thought it was so heartfelt. And Anne Hathaway is really growing on me with her performance in that and Dark Knight Rises.

We spent one day in DC. We went to Ford's theater and saw the bed Lincoln was carried to and died in and a museum about a lot of the civil rights stuff that was going on at the time. We went to the Post Office Pavillion and had lunch and then took the elevator up to the top of the bell tower and enjoyed the wind and the view. We went to the National Archives and saw the Magna Carta, the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, etc. Then we split up to go to different museums. Nate, Ethan and I headed to the Natural History museum, which was so cool. It reminded me of the Natural History museum in Vienna. They also had this awesome nature photography exhibit with really cool pictures of animals, and trees and volcanoes and things and each picture said the camera that was used and what settings too.

We went to Antietam another day - can you believe that the Berrett brothers had never been. The ground was all snow covered, but it was very cool to walk around and see where the battles took place. We climbed a watch tower that had a cool view of a lot of the area and we saw Burnside Bridge. (Ps. I went to Antietam with my family when I was about 12 but I don't remember much of it). Then we met the Berrett parents and Ethan in Harper's Ferry where we had lunch and walked around the town. On the way home we stopped at the DC temple to see the beautiful lights and snap a few photos. They had a cool exhibit inside the visitor center with a bunch of nativities from different countries. Some day I will have my own German candle pyramid.

Three or four Christmases ago they started a tradition of making a ginger bread house together, one year they made their home, one year a barn. This year we decided to make a castle tower with rapunzel at the top. The tower even included sugar glass windows. Rapunzels long hair was made of licorice and there were penguins repelling down her hair.

One evening Nate and I went to dinner with Nate's best friend Jesse and his girlfriend Ali at an Italian place. We both ordered pizza and I enjoyed hearing stories about Nate's crazy highschool years, while Nate enjoyed hearing what all his friends were up to.

We drove to Bears Den for a cold lunch spent by the fire eating roasted hot dogs and smores and chippies.

Of course other things were enjoyed while we were there too - lots of mario cart, super smash brothers, wii sword fights, foosball, walks to the Potomac River, ping pong, waaaay too much food, ice cream, sugar cookies and more, bananagrams, movies and more. Oh and of course the boys played basketball a few times too.

It was a fantastic trip and we are so grateful to Dain and Ash for planning a spring/summer wedding so we know it won't be too long till we can see them all again.