I Bleed Blue

Have you ever met those super hardcore sports fans? You know, the ones who will love and support their "chosen team" no matter how horrible or amazing the season may be? I'm not one of those people. I'll admit, I have teams I favor, like Gonzaga for basketball and BYU for football, but all in all, win or lose, I'll still be Ashley at the end of the day. My year won't be ruined if the Zags didn't make it to the Elite 8 when the NCAA tournament rolled around, or if the Cougs weren't named the Mountain West Conference Champions. All that being said, I'll still tell anyone that I Bleed Blue and I love my BYU cougars. :)

So why, you ask, am I talking about the sports teams I enjoy watching? Because of this- a few months back, my mom decorated my nieces Julia and Giorgia's room for them. Apparently, their older brother, Jackson, felt like their room was so well decorated, it "look[ed] like a hotel room". Who knew a sports obsessed 10-year old kid could care about whether a room was decorated or not, but he did. And of course, my mom loves a decorating challenge, so she decided to decorate Jackson's room in BYU themed everything. Jackson REALLY bleeds blue. He LOVES his Cougars and would be happy to wear all things BYU all the time, I am sure. So, to go along with this newly decorated BYU themed room, my mom thought it would be fun for both the boys, Jackson and Harrison, to have pictures of themselves in their BYU attire hanging above their beds. Me being the picture taking enthusiast that I am, offered to take their pictures for them and here's how they turned out. I hope you will enjoy them. :)













Oh, and we have a new picture at the top of our blog from Priest Lake this year. One of the few pictures I was actually in. :)

Lions, Tigers? Nope. But Bears! OH MY!

Last week marked the annual Jeff and Valerie Calaway family trip to Priest Lake and it was a blast, as usual. We were there from Sunday to Saturday and the only rain we got was on our trip up to the lake. Beautiful weather, lots of tubing, skiing, and wake boarding (none done by me, of course) and laying out to get tan (read: red) was what the week consisted of. And, as always, good food and great company. The only difference in our trip this year was. . . a bear. Oh yes. A bear. We were sitting down one night, watching a movie and suddenly I looked to the back porch and there's a cuddly little (read: large) black bear walking across the porch. No big deal. My first reaction was to lock the doors. Please, laugh. I did after I realized the absurdity of that thought. I don't think a locked door would keep a disgruntled, or hungry for that matter, bear out of a house. Luckily, this was about the most docile bear that ever was to be seen and he was out of there so fast we didn't even get a picture. Darn it. Other than that, we had a very uneventful, relaxing week. And here are the pictures to prove it. :)

Warning: Lots of pictures ahead!

Oh, and these are in no particular order, by the way.

Dallin, Blaine and Devin on the Molecule

Colton loved "Ja-nosh" (Janelle)'s sunglasses and decided to sport em one of the days, along with his awesome wetsuit, which Derek and Bradley wore when they were little guys.

He had just finished saying "Good yuck!" And giving me a thumbs up. So cute.

Hillary, Blaine and Colton about to go tubing. Colton was the one to request the tube ride. I was impressed. He acutally loved it.

Blaine and Colton on the tube

The gym you ask? Oh, it's that way.

I feel like this caption should read "NACHOOOOOOOOO!" :)

Bradley decided it'd be cool to ride the tube upside down. And no, he never fell off. I know, miraculous!

Dallin and Bradley look a little bored... hmmm...

Just strikin a pose, playin it cool.

Dallin skiing

Skiing again!

A close up of the skiier. :)

A crazy jump that Dallin made.

Dallin and Hillary

Have you noticed how I am in none of these pictures? It's what happens when you're 6 months preggars and on a boating trip. :)

Devin waterskiing

Devin's sweet mullet that he just cut yesterday. We're kinda sad, we liked it :)

Dallin on the tube and havin fun!

Just chillaxin before the real fun began. :)

And there you have it. Our Priest Lake adventure! With no pictures of me. :) Oh, and by the way, I'm 24 weeks! 6 months! Woo-hoo!

Jumbled

I decided it would be cool to just spill a lot of totally random things into this post and call it good. It's my blog, I can do what I want, right? :) (cue "it's my party and I can cry if I want to" music)

So, yesterday I had another doctors appointment. I didn't mention it on here because I didn't want to worry anyone unnecessarily. Why would you worry, you ask? Because two weeks ago, I started bleeding. Not a ton of blood, just enough to get me a little (read: a lot) freaked out. This happened on a Saturday and my 20 week appointment was on Monday. I held off calling the doctor (a: because there wasn't that much bleeding and b: because I had my appointment Monday. No sense calling, I thought.) So I went into my appointment, they found all was well and I mentioned my bleeding. I didn't over dramatize or under dramatize (is there such a thing??) anything, I just let him know my concerns. He said my cervix was a little on the thinner side of normal, so he wanted me back in two weeks for another ultrasound to see whether or not it was continuing to thin out, to which I agreed. Meanwhile, he told me to live life as normal, as he didn't see anything that looked too suspicious. And so I did. When I went in yesterday, my cervix was measuring at about 3.2 cm. Two weeks previous, it had been at 3.5 cm. The doctor says he's still not terribly worried about that (and, for the record, neither am I) and to continue life as normal. The only restriction he put on me is no heavy lifting, no standing on my feet continuously for more than 8 hours at a time, and no overly strenuous exercise. Pretty much, he told me, use common sense. So, I am taking it a little easier than normal, but still living life and, quite honestly, not worrying about my silly cervix. For all we know, that's my normal size, but being this is my first pregnancy and I have had a sister (Tara) who had to go on bed rest for two of her kids because her cervix thinned out too quickly and she started contracting at like 26 or 28 weeks, we're still being a little cautious. So there you have it! Pregnancy update for the week. :) Oh and baby is moving like crazy lately. Especially right before I go to bed. I watched him/her roll across my stomach the other night, it was amazing. I love this whole movement thing, it's just a miracle to me.

Now, in other news, I have been getting crafty lately. I have an apron that is all cut out and just needs to be sewn, a sweet little recipe board that is super easy to make (and totally cute to boot!) and some metal cups just waiting to be painted and planted with herbs so I can have my own little herb garden! I love craftiness. :)

The spray paint I am going to use on future herb garden cups

My recipe board. It's got that metal sheet and then cute little magnets so when I have a recipe I need to refer to, I can just pin it up on the board and have it at my fingertips. Necessary? Nah. Cute? Yeah.

Along with the craftiness, I have also been taking pictures of my mom and dads yard lately because it is so pretty right now! Here are some of the pictures.

A marigold growing in one of the pots of flowers my mom has on the deck.

Another flower in one of the pots (I don't know the name of this one.)

This is one of the two catalpa trees in my mom and dads backyard. They're the best trees. They get huge leaves and gorgeous blossoms every spring and summer and when the wind blows, it looks like its snowing. :)

The other night, I took dinner out to Dallin, Bradley and Derek at a field they were working on. While I was there, there was the most gorgeous sunset. I kind of caught the tail end of it, but here it is. I love sunsets.


And there you have it. My totally random and jumbled post. Gotta keep things fresh and exciting around here, right?! :)

I Stink at This Game. . .

So, I haven't really updated or posted many pictures of the goings on of our lives for the past little while and I realized, I really stink at this whole updating game. All I talk about is pregnancy lately, or so it seems, and I am sure you're all getting tired of it. :) So, without further ado, here are some pictures and updates from the Calaway family.

This is from Blaine and Hillary's trip to see us back in March. Yes, March. I know, I know, I told you I stunk at this picture/update game! Dallin kept teasing Colton and he just looked too cute to not put this up.

As we were unpacking our stuff in Salem in April, I turned around and found my husband like this. He never ceases to make me laugh. He's kind of a goofball, wouldn't you say? :)

I took this when we came home for a visit sometime in April. I thought it was so cute of all the girls with their cute happy faces.

Another visit home in April or May. Dallin was wrestling with Tara's boys and they were in heaven. Lots of giggling and yelling going on. :)

Same visit, Emi playing with Thomas the Tank Engine.

Do you not love the look on Harrison's face in this picture? He is totally too cool for school. And I love his popped collar. Staci says he wears it like that all the time. Too funny. This was taken at Nate and Staci's on the day of Savannah's blessing.

How cute are these three? I told Emiline to smile and this is what she gave me. More of a grimace. . . oh well, we tried! :) Also taken on Savannah's blessing day.

All the kids being silly for the camera on Savannah's blessing day.

Then they decided they needed to try a pyramid. :)

Proud Grandma with her newest grandbaby. Number 13!

All the kids minus Savannah.

Emiline, just chillin as the kids are selling Cherries the other day. Loving her squints look.

All the cherry selling kids!

We told Emiline she couldn't get in the pool without a life jacket. She took the news well.

Just chattin poolside at Rachel and Chad's the other night.

Anyhow, that has been the gist of the goings on of our lives right now. I'm always behind the camera and Dallin is usually working. Poor kid, he's been going 90 miles an hour lately! And I appreciate him doing it so much. Life is so good right now and we feel incredibly blessed to be where we are with so much family around.

22 Weeks With a Cherry On Top

22 weeks folks. Can you believe it? I can't. It doesn't seem real. Even with the increasing size of my abdominal area and the near constant kicking, it all feels like a dream. I think I forget that other people can see my belly too, because today, I went into a place to pick up a gift and the girl that helped me said, "how far along are you?" It took me by surprise that a complete stranger asked me about my pregnancy until I realized, "oh yeah, my belly is sticking out, huh?" I notice as I walk down the mall or help people at my dad's office or walk the aisles at Wal-Mart that I keep getting stares too. And, of course, the first thought is, "why are people staring at me? Do I have something on my face or clothes?" No, it would just be the protruding belly. It's new and exciting and funny and weird all at the same time.

I was talking to my mom the other day about it all and I said, "Mom, my friends and I are all getting to the parenting stage. It is so weird. My friends or my friends wives are all pregnant or have had babies! Pretty soon we'll be the soccer and ballet moms, the violin and PTO parents, worrying about the talk you have to help "Jimmy" prepare for primary and scouts and achievement days! This is too weird!!" She just laughed and assured me that she was in the same boat not that long ago. It just feels weird that suddenly I am in that boat now too. I feel overwhelmingly unprepared and yet I want to dive in, head first, as soon as I can. No one told me pregnancy was so confusing. :)

So, here are some pictures for you. I forgot to post this one from 20 weeks

and now, here I am at 22 weeks.
Not that big of a difference, I think, but whatever works. :) Oh and I took this picture with my timer and it was like the 20th picture I had taken, so excuse the head being cut off a little. I was ready to be done taking pictures and called it good. :)

On a totally unrelated topic, there are some exceptionally cute young ladies selling cherries at the residence where I currently reside (my parents house), so if you want some delicious cherries and some cute service to boot, come on over! They will be selling tomorrow (I believe) for $2.00 per pound and a half (Or one ziploc bag full :)). Trust me when I say these cherries are to die for. Super duper yummy and picked fresh by yours truly everyday. Hopefully we can keep the birds at bay so there will actually be some for you to all enjoy. If you're not sure where my parents home is located, it is 10217 Maple Dr. Pretty easy to find, I promise. And you won't be disappointed!