A Day in the Life...

of a CPA! Well, I guess not quite. Yesterday was a long day, full of work stuff, but it definitely wasn't a typical day in the office.  First we had our firm retreat up at the Zermatt resort in Midway. As part of the retreat we had Larry Gelwix, the Rugby coach from the movie Forever Strong speak to us. I definitely want to see the movie now. We also had panels, food, and my favorite part....

In between each section of panels/speakers, our office (50+) was divided into teams of 4 for a "Minute to Win it Challenge." Each round was single elimination and nobody could go twice. My team won! Whahoo. And the best part is that we each won one of the new Ipod Nano's with the touch screen.

The prize was pretty exciting and will be fun to have when I can get back into good running/biking shape after the baby. The other part about the win that I was really excited about was that I redeemed myself from last year.

 Last year, the activity was bowling, and I won the award for the lowest bowling score in the entire firm. Out of over 50 people that was really embarrassing and pretty hard to do. I guess useless games is a new talent of mine. My particular game involved getting two penny's out of the bottom of nylons. 

After the retreat, Steven picked me up and we headed up the SLC for the "CPA Inauguration." It was an event to celebrate all the new CPA's in the state of Utah. As part of it, we each walked across the stage to receive a certificate and this funny little award....

And of course, the night wouldn't have been anything without my awesome support system:

I sure love him. We didn't take any pictures until we were in the car going home, so this is the best I got of Steven. I definitely couldn't have reached my goal of becoming a CPA without him.

I will admit that I was feeling a little sad last night. Right as I am feeling really competent at what I do, and my career has the chance of advancing, I'm putting it on hold. At least for now. I love the social interaction and sense of accomplishment of going to work. I love helping people and feeling like I'm contributing to our income. However, I know that in just a few months my life is going to drastically change and I'm kind of terrified.

My husband might not be able to be there for the birth of our first child and will be working tons of hours after that. I am moving to a brand new, huge city with absolutely no family or support system. And, I'll have a new little girl and I'm not quite sure how to be a mom yet. I know that instinct will kick in, but it will be a learning experience for sure.

However, as I was walking across the stage last night, our little girl was kicking me like crazy. I like to think she was telling me congratulations :)

Those little kicks reminded me of what I am doing and why I am choosing to be a full-time mom. Why I know that it is the best thing for our family right now.  Why I feel like getting the chance to be a mom is such a privilege. Because despite all the sacrifices and scary unknowns that my future holds, I know that I am doing the right thing and I would make the same choice again in a heartbeat.

Tax "Planning"

As a tax accountant, I do a lot of tax planning for my clients. However, I have not done the best "tax planning" with my own life.

Steven and I were married on January 3rd.

Little baby girl is due on January 25th.

Even though my "tax planning" was a little off, I think that I will definitely have to get our little girl one of these.....

I love it.

Fall Colors

As I typed the title for this post, my Canadian and American sides were at war. If I followed my Canadian roots, that would have been "colours," but I guess I've just been in the good ole' USA too long and "colors" won out. Anyways, that was a tangent.

My mom has been in town this past week visiting. She came to bring us a car (more on that later. My parents are very generous and we are very blessed), visit her sisters, and spend some time with us. We had a ton of fun. My mom and I went shopping for baby girl and that was a blast. Today, we went for a drive/walk up by Midway and the colors of fall are just beautiful in the mountains right now.

Steven also loves to take pictures of any wildlife/gross bugs that we find. Here is a spider we found outside of the Wallsburg house. Ick. I don't like bugs, but he finds them fascinating.

And, what would a fall walk be without deer?

The camera and I are not really friends right now, and probably won't be for a while. But, I do want to document the belly progress, so here we go (almost 22 weeks). I'm going to be huge.....:

I love fall. I can't wait for cozy sweaters and crunching leaves. 

Pink or Blue?

I had my 20 week ultrasound today, and according to that, we are definitely looking at......

PINK!!!

Baby Foote is now officially Baby Girl Foote. We actually think we might have a name, but we are only about 75% sure, so I'll keep that a secret a little longer. 

Our baby girl was definitely not shy and showed us that she is pretty much 100% for sure a girl.

Everything is looking great and healthy, and the baby is measuring exactly on my due date, maybe even a couple of days ahead. The ultrasound tech said that our little gal was difficult to measure because she was just moving everywhere. Here is her kicking me. I've been feeling a lot of this lately :). 

I think this is one of my favorite pictures. Here are her dainty little legs.....

.... And cute little face. 

We are already proud parents and she isn't even here yet!