Announcing.....Baby Girl!

Andrew and I are happy to announce that baby girl will be joining our family in July! We had our ultrasound appointment a few weeks ago. For some reason I was super nervous a few days before we found out, but totally calm when we walked into the doctors office. Our little girl is quite camera shy, which she will have to get over. The Doctor had to shake my stomach quite a few times to get her to uncurl her legs so we could see what she was, but no matter how hard he tried little girl would not take her arms from over her head so we were not able to get a good profile shot. Just like her mom she is a late sleeper, and didn't like the fact we were trying to get her to move around at 9 in the morning. Doctor said she looked healthy and all her measurements were in the right range. However she is measuring tall, so surprise there, and also a little big so they moved my due date from July 31st to July 24th. We are super excited and already our little apartment is being over run with little pink things. So far my baby bump is still pretty small, I guess being tall provides a lot of room for baby to grow. I will have to post a picture once I actually "pop."

A little update and some exciting news!

It has been a while since I have posted so I guess it is time. I'll start back with Thanksgiving since that was about when I left off. We went down to Arizona for Thanksgiving with Andrew's family to visit his Aunt and Uncle that live there. It was so nice to be in warm weather and not have to worry about layers and layers of clothes to keep you warm. We drove down and split the drive up into two days so it wasn't too bad. While there we had fun spending time with family, enjoying the heat, well at least I did, and eating some delicious food. We went black friday shopping, but thanks to the stores opening Thursday evening instead of early friday we were out and home in less then 2 hours. It was nice. Andrew and I also took a little side trip to Canada over Thanksgiving weekend. My friend Deborah and her husband Matt got sealed in the Calgary Temple so we flew out from Phoenix to Calgary, stayed for about 30 hours, and then flew to Las Vegas where Andrew's family picked us up from the airport and we drove back to Logan so Andrew could be home for classes on Monday. It was a LONG day of travel but well worth the money we saved flying into vegas instead of SLC. Andrew finished up his second to last semester of his undergrad and then it was time for Christmas break. A much needed break for both of us. While I still had to work, and so did Andrew, it was nice to have our evenings together. Usually they consist of him doing homework and me watching TV. So it was nice to spend some time together. We had a great Christmas spent with lots of family, lots of food, and way too many presents. We had an unexpected gift to give to our family this year and I think all of them were surprised. We told our family that we are pregnant! Yup thats right! Baby Noorlander is on its way, Due July 31, 2013! We are so excited! Everything has been going well so far. I am 15 weeks along and thankfully during the first trimester I didn't really suffer from much morning sickness, just fatigue mostly which was treated with lots of couch time after work. We have our next ultra sound scheduled for March 15th, and we will find out the gender of the baby. We are both very excited and I often find my self occupied with baby stuff during my free time. I have been able to contain my baby excitement and haven't bought anything so far, just looking and getting ideas. I am afraid it will be much harder to keep my wallet closed once we know what gender it is. Luckily for us, being the youngest sibling will pay off nicely, we are getting a lot of hand me down items from my siblings and other people we know, which should help in the financial department. Another new addition to our little family is our "new" car. By "new" I mean new to us. My mom recently purchased a new car and since mine was having some trouble she gave us her old one. See, being the youngest has its benefits! Andrew is currently in the middle of his last semester of his undergrad in Landscape Architecture, he will graduate this coming May. He also got some exciting news that he has been accepted into the Masters of Business Administration program at Utah State! He will start that in May also and continue on to the fall and spring semesters. He got into the one year program so we will be in Logan for at least the next year and a half. Then who knows where life will take us. Well that is it for now. I will try to keep things updated a little better now.

Yeah for baby!

Breaking out the Camera

Today I did something I haven't done in a while. I woke up early (well kind of early) put on my hoodie, my hat and my gloves that I use for shooting. (Thanks to Deb for those, they are a life uh... I mean hand/finger saver!) The colors in Cache Valley have been changing for a few weeks now, but I finally had a day off work, so I took the opportunity to head out and take pictures in the almost freezing cold... it was 34 degrees when I left, but I couldn't let that stop me, even though the warmth of my bed was calling my name, loudly. But still, I jumped in the car and headed towards sardine canyon. My mission for the day was to photograph the fall colors and the Brigham City Temple, So that is why I chose Sardine Canyon, I could accomplish both on the same trip without going too much out of my way. So with the car heater on full blast I headed down what I like to call the longest road in America. If you've driven the highway between Logan and the mouth of the canyon you know what I mean. While I was driving I couldn't pass up the beauty of the Wellsville Mountains. Somedays I think there is no place like Cache valley in the world. I love living in this beautiful place, and I'm grateful I have a talent that will let me capture it's beauty permanently.

Ah, the beauty of Cache Valley, there is no place like home!

Lake Powell 2012

Well it's been another busy summer, but we've had our share of fun as well. No summer is complete without the Peterson family trip to Lake Powell. It has always been my favorite vacation since I was little and I look forward to it every summer. We had a blast with the many boat trips, playing in the water, and relaxing on the beach. We only had one minor mishap while at the beach, which involved grandmas van getting stuck in the sand and when we tried to tow it out the front bumper ripped off, nothing a little duct tape can't fix for the week. :)

Lone Rock Beach

On the boat!

Peace!

Ripping it up!

Justin taping grandma's bumper back on

No Lake Powell trip is complete with out a beautiful sunset.

New Jersey/New York

Well I can officially make New York of my list of places to visit! Andrew and I had a blast spending a few days in the Big Apple with The Thatchers! They make excellent travel buddies! We Visited many places in New Jersey, Mike served his mission there so we has able to take us around to the sights and he did a great job of driving us around every where. We did as much as we could in NY, going to the top of the Empire State Building, Eating a hot dog from a street cart, going to central park, seeing the Manhattan temple and going to Phantom of the Opera on Broadway. We also went to the 9/11 memorial which was really cool. They are still constructing it but once it is complete it will be a way cool place. We ate lots of pizza, and tried to eat at places that we don't have in Utah. We had a great time and made lots of fun memories. I loved going to the Phantom of the Opera, it was probably the highlight of the trip for me. Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty was also really cool. Over all we had a great trip but I am happy to be back in Utah. I like my little bubble, and small city.

Saryah Kate

Yesterday my beautiful niece Saryah Kate was born. My sister Kathryn asked me if I would be willing to come down when she was in labor to take pictures of the baby in the hospital and of the family. So she called me on the way to the hospital and I made the drive from Logan to Murry. I got there at about 11:30 and we hung out and waited for this little girl to make her way into the world. We had lots of fun hanging out and talking it seemed, at least for me that the time flew by waiting for her to be born. Then suddenly the nurses and doctors were swarming the room and it was time for Saryah to join our family. All of us that were there waited out in the waiting room for Aaron to come tell us that they baby was here, we heard her cry and waited and waited. Then Aaron came out and asked my mom to come into the room, that the baby was having a hard time breathing. It was a little bit of a shock to all of us and we were all worried. They let us take a quick peek at little Saryah as they took her to NICU. It was a scary and nerve wracking hour or so as we waited to see if she would be okay. Thankfully she was doing much better than she was and the doctor approved her to go up the the room with Katie and that things were looking great. It was such a relief. We had fun taking turns holding her and I loved taking pictures of her, I have to admit she will probably be my new little model for a while. So far Mom and baby are both doing great and we are looking forward to seeing them again in a few days. I love being and aunt it is the greatest! Welcome to the world little Saryah Kate!!!

Time to Craft

Over the last couple of months I've had to find ways to entertain my self, I work part time (very part time) and keeping busy while Andrew is at school can be a challenge sometimes. I don't know when it happened, but I became big on crafting, and especially making wreaths. I guess I got sick of our plain white front door so I have to dress it up a little. I've also found that making wreaths can be pretty cheap, the most expensive wreath I've made so far has been about six dollars. I like to think of my self as a budget crafter. I've made many other little decorations for our apartment for the different holidays but I decided that just posting pictures of my wreaths would be the easiest.

I also made one for February, but I gave that one away to a friend and didn't get a picture of it before I did. I plan on making one for each of the up coming summer months, I have some ideas of what I would like to do so let's see if they actually turn out like I want them too.