Pumpkin Masterpiece

I love Christmas and Easter and Thanksgiving and pretty much all holidays. I get so excited for holidays. Except Halloween. I don't really love Halloween. However, pumpkin carving is one part of Halloween that has definitely become a Foote family tradition.

This tradition is mostly because Steven loves to carve pumpkins. However, faces on pumpkins or pre-made patterns are never part of his pumpkin carving. Steven creates his own pumpkin carvings and designs. He is always so creative. Past year's pumpkins have included Jack Johnson, Batman, and Kenny Chesney (that one was my request).

This year, in honor of our time spent here in Provo, Steven created a BYU pumpkin, showing off Y mountain, the Tanner building and the SWKT.  We both can't believe that is was 6 years ago now that we met here. We have loved our "BYU" days, but we are excited for the next chapter of our lives. Here is Steven's pumpkin creation:

6 Months

Right now, like most pregnant women, I am hungry. Steven and I are going out for dinner before a concert we are going to tonight, but Steven is doing homework. However, despite temptation, I'm being a good wife and leaving him alone. So I thought it was a good time to do a pregnancy update!

Here I am at 6 months pregnant. Or at least I think 6 months pregnant. I don't quite understand how some people quote the whole pregnancy timeline. I am almost 26 weeks and I will be having my baby in about 3 months. 6 months right? Well, most people say that 20 weeks is five months..... 24 is 6 months.... 28 is 7 months... etc. But, that would make pregnancy 10 months when it really is 9. I think that is crazy. So, 6 months it is. 

Right now I am enjoying this stage of pregnancy. I finally have a noticeable "bump" but I'm not too big to be uncomfortable. She is moving like crazy and I love being able to watch my belly and see the kicks. 

One thing that I am learning about pregnancy is that there are alot of symptoms that come along with it. I was prepared for morning sickness and getting bigger, but I was unaware of charlie horses, ligament pain, nosebleeds, heartburn, etc. But, whenever I start feeling like complaining about anything, I just remember how lucky I am to get this experience, and how excited we are to be parents. Then, all of those symptoms don't seem bad at all.

I haven't really had too many cravings, which Steven has been disappointed about. I think he wanted me to wake up at 3 am one day and demand that he go get whatever food I must have NOW. 

However, my first trimester I could not eat anything sweet. It all sounded disgusting to me. Luckily, that has passed and I am pretty much just eating normally, except forcing down a zillion cups of water a day and making sure I eat more fruits and veggies. 

Time is going fast now. There are still so many uncertain parts of our life coming up in just a few months that it is a little scary how fast time is flying. But, I am mostly so excited. I can't wait to finally meet her and be a mom. 

Viva Bike Vegas - Round 2

Last time I wrote a post on here, everyone thought it was Paige, so I just want to clarify that, while Paige does indeed write most of the posts, I (Steven) am writing this one. 

About two years ago we wrote in our Christmas letter that I was going to do a century during the coming year (2009). A century is 100+ miles of bike riding in a single day. I did the century in Vegas, riding the first half with my brother, Tyler, and the last 30 miles with my dad. My dad took a picture very similar to the one below last year. This year, however, both Tyler and my dad rode the whole thing with me.

Seeing the 100 mile sign is enough to make even the most sunburned cyclist smile. Tyler forgot to apply sunscreen. I forgot to reapply.

 This picture is of us crossing the not yet opened Hoover Dam bridge. It was open just to the cyclists of the event for a 2.5 hour window. Pretty awesome.

 About 10 hours after we started, we crossed the finish line and got these cool medals. Don't let the smiles fool you; we were in an incredible amount of pain. But, the fact that we didn't have to ride any further was enough reason to smile a bit.

 Our support team met us at lunch and a few other places along the route. They sure are cute. I didn't see any other posters, so I guess we're pretty awesome.

 Paige is so awesome. Who can dispute that?

 In cross-country I learned to sprint to the finish of every race. This race, however, had police barricades about 5 feet past the finish line, so I had to restrain myself and slow down a little early.

It was a great day, and to anyone who thinks they might be interested in buying a road bike, I would direct them to my other blog, where I write about such things fairly often. stevenfoote.posterous.com

Conference Weekend

This past weekend was General Conference. I love conference. We also always get to spend conference weekend with family, so that will be quite the adjustment because next conference.... we will be in California. I'm still pretty excited about that though. The Foote's came into town and we spent Friday night eating dinner up at Sundance. Steven's sister, Lisa, also got engaged that night. Congrats Lisa!

The Foote family is definitely growing. There are 13 + one fiancé (Miguel) + 2 babies on the way in January. Don't worry. Only one of those is mine. 

The boys spent the conference break going on a bike ride. We are going to Las Vegas this weekend because Steven is riding in Viva Bike Vegas again.

I just have one complaint. Most husbands, when their wives are pregnant, gain "sympathy weight." Well, Steven is slim to start with and is training for a 120 mile bike ride with average practice rides that burn 1500 calories. Hmpff... I'm not getting any sympathy!

That is ok. I'm right on track and I know that the weight is good for our little gal. But, I do sometimes freak out about it. Which is why Steven might have hidden our bathroom scale on me. He did a really good job too. I have looked and looked and do not know where he put it.

During the Priesthood session, we had our "girls craft night." This has become quite the tradition. We have decorated eggs, made t-shirts, bracelets.... and this time.... flowers! For our hair of course.

My flower was black and didn't seem to show up in any of the pictures. But, I assure you I was wearing one too. We even made one for my adorable niece, Rebecca. 



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.