Success.

So I actually completed my goal of making yummy cupcakes today. See?

They're dark chocolate with peanut butter frosting and Reese's on top. They're pretty good, if I say so myself.

The only problem with pregnancy baking? I make them then I don't actually want to eat them. I'm not hugely into sweets lately. 

Dang.

Hope Sterling is up to eating dozens of cupcakes on his own while I practice my new hobby :)

Cupcakes & Apartment life.

This weekend was nice and easygoing. I have two things that I want to blog about:

#1) The one not-so-nice or easygoing part. I love our apartment. It's nice and pretty and feels like home. But I want a house. A real house. One that isn't surrounded by neighbors. The apartment below us has been empty the entire time we've lived here, until this weekend. A lady and her preteen/young teen daughter moved in. And some scraggly guy, who isn't a husband and I can't tell if he's family just staying for a few days or if he's some sort of boyfriend fellow. Anyway, the lady had a bunch of trashy people help her move in on Saturday. They were nice in the short passing I had with them. But I had all my windows open all day, so I got to hear the lady's entire life story with commentary from her friends/family and it was all heavily-laced with F-bombs. Her past drug addictions, relationships with bad men, dodging jails, etc. They were discussing it loudly outside. In a complex that has little kids playing outside 24/7. Ughh. Can't stand it when people have no awareness of what is appropriate to share in public.

And that actually wasn't what I had intended to write about concerning our apartment. But then as I got writing I remembered how it bugged me. Anyway, what I really want to vent about is teenage hooligans whose parents don't care where they are at 2am. Because where are they? Ringing my doorbell a bunch of times then running away. AT 2AM. Sleep doesn't come too easily during pregnancy so if you disturb mine, you are on my death-list. I was livid, to say the least. Especially when I thought about what if they do this crap once we have a baby. I tell you, if some kids ever wake up my sleeping baby in the middle of the night, I will hunt them down. I'll go to every house in this town until I find their mommas and I will tell them exactly what I think of them and their child.

This time though, I just stayed awake for the next hour, staring out our windows into the dark, waiting for those dang kids to sneak back so I could catch them and chew them out and make them pee their pants.

I know, I'm a little crazy. When I get angry I picture myself as some hardcore scary beast. Not the little 5'2 blonde that I really am.


And now I'm so fired up that I can't even remember what #2 was. Whoops.

Aaaanyway, Sterling gets off work from Friday at 2pm alllll the way until Monday morning. To us, this seems like the equivalent of having a week off. We're super excited. Our big plans are to go to Grace :)  There will be some other fun stuff thrown in there, too. Probably some good eating. That's always the center of our outings.

Speaking of eating, I am desperate to find a good Chinese restaurant in IF. Cause our luck isn't the best, so far. Well, according to me at least. Sterling thinks it's all great. It's not :)


OH, I remembered #2! Yesterday while being a farmer's wife and driving around the farm with Sterling, checking his pivots, I figured out my New Life Plan. I'm going to master the art of delicious, fancy cupcakes (if you've seen my Pinterest in the last 24 hours, you probably have already caught onto this). Then we're going to move to Grace and I'll have my own little business of making cupcakes and cakes for the variety of Mormon events that are always taking place in that town, like weddings and mission farewells and baby showers and everything. Great plan. So now I'm a little obsessed with starting this exciting new hobby. Last night, throughout all my different, weird dreams (I dream the craziest stuff since being pregnant) I was continually in the process of baking and frosting this amazing chocolate & peanut butter cupcake. So that is my first thing to tackle. Today I'm going to go buy supplies and I'm making this chocolate&PB cupcake. And I'm praying it's as amazing as it was in Dreamland. And I'm also praying that I complete this cupcake before The Preggie Fatigue hits me. 

And my short weekend update has suddenly turned into a novel. Funny how that always happens...

12 weeks!

Sterling takes my bump picture every Monday or Tuesday, so today was the day! Here is the 12 week bump.

It is a little blurry, but I think you can see the growing tummy. And yes, as you can see, I broke out the stretchy pants :)

I also am finally back to my usual blonde, thanks to the lovely Michelle Smith! You may have noticed it looking a little darker for awhile, I had her give me some brown lowlights a couple of months ago. It faded to a caramel-y color and I was missing the blonde! So now it is here to stay.

Michelle is in Rexburg, so I ventured there for the first time today! And I didn't even get lost once (I'll tell about how my pregnancy-brain has affected my sense of direction another time soon). I found my way to the temple and everything! It seems pretty small, but I really liked it! All perched on top of a green hill and pretty.

Anyway, the pregnancy has been good, though definitely taking its toll on me. The nausea isn't too bad these days, but goodness, my energy level is awful. I'll go to the grocery store then come home and have to nap until Sterling calls to say he's on his way home from work. I can handle about a two-hour outing and that is it. I hope this improves sometime soon, because I'd love to rejoin the productive world. Right now, productive is managing to put away the groceries I bring home!

THE Announcement!

I have been dying to write this post for weeks. For about 8 weeks, to be exact. And now the time has finally come to tell you all that....

We're having a baby!!!!!!

That's right, Baby Stoddard is on its way and should be here around December 31st. I'm just under 12 weeks along. We've had 3 ultrasounds so far (we had a bit of worry early on so that's why all the ultrasounds so early) and the little one is healthy and growing very quickly!

And it has sure been taking a toll on this pregnant momma, that's for sure. Pregnancy is tough! Nausea and fatigue have hit me hard. I think I'm over the worst part of the morning sickness, but fatigue is still going full force. I have maybe a tenth of the energy I used to have. Today, I went to Target in IF and it killed me. I came home and napped and have had a headache ever since. I've also been dealing with a bladder infection that won't go away. They put me on antibiotics for it a month ago, but I had them test me at my last appointment on Wednesday and I've still got it, I found out today. It's a little worrisome since I have a history of bladder and kidney problems; I had a few surgeries when I was younger. Plus since I've had this infection for at least a month, it's in danger of spreading to my kidneys, which is not good. So back to the doctor on Monday I go!

Nonetheless, we are very very excited for this new addition to our little family :)  It seems like December is forever away! I'll write another post soon telling the story of how we found out and everything. For now, here are some baby bump pictures! We are documenting it every week, beginning at Week 9.

Week 9

Week 10

Week 11

Later in Week 11...the bump seemed to pop overnight so I had to document it :)

This was our Facebook announcement :)

I also have to mention that I'm a little terrified of how huge my stomach is going to get. See, I'm barely 5'2, and I have THE shortest torso in the world, so there is absolutely nowhere for this baby to go but OUT. Like, it's going to go really really far out. I'm a little concerned about toppling over forward when walking toward the end of these 9 months. Yikes!

One more thing: I'm a sucker for these kinds of things, so here is a little weekly questionnaire:

How far along? A few days short of 12 weeks

Pre-pregnancy weight: 122 lbs

Current weight: 120 lbs
Total weight gain/loss: -2 lbs. That's what morning (or all day) sickness will do to ya.
Maternity clothes? I do actually have one maternity shirt so far, but I still fit into my normal jeans and everything still.
Stretch marks? No. And I bought Palmer's today, so let's hope it'll stay that way!
Sleep: Tired all the time, but I don't sleep very well at night without my beloved Unisom. It is a pregnant ladies lifesaver!
Best moment this week: Seeing the baby in the ultrasound. Grew so much since last time!
Have you told family and friends: Yes! Everybody officially knows. Family found out at like 4 weeks, ha.
Miss Anything? Feeling like a normal, healthy person. And real sushi. Oh gosh, I want sushi.
Movement: Not yet.
Food cravings: Steak, sushi, thai, fresh fruit, anything citrus-limes especially, ANYTHING salty.
Anything making you queasy or sick: Yogurt, sometimes ice cream, most dairy actually. And I can't drink water on an empty stomach or it comes right back up :/
Have you started to show yet: Finally getting a little bump!
Gender prediction: Boy. I'm pretty convinced. 

Labor Signs: No
Belly Button in or out? In.
Wedding rings on or off? On
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy!
Weekly Wisdom: After throwing up my prenatal vitamin and realizing it was BRIGHT orange, I decided you really do get what you pay for with $3 Walmart prenatals. Spend a little more for better quality for the baby! And it just so happens I found good new ones that just happen to be in gummy form :)
Looking forward to: Getting a bigger bump & finding out the gender! :)

Keepin' busy.

Whew! I don't know how so much time goes by without me blogging. This week has been pretty dang busy though.

Sterling's momma has had some stuff to do in Idaho Falls this week, so she had a sleepover with us :)  Then on Wednesday, I went with her to meet her 3 sisters up in Ucon, and we ended up driving down to Brigham City & Ogden, Utah for the day! Had some delicious lunch at Maddox then went shopping at this amazing homeware store called TaiPan. It was fun, it was the first time I've met Sterling's aunts and they're a bunch of fun.

Another day this week, Suzy (Sterling's mom) and I went shopping around in IF, and she showed me this wonderful craft store called Porter's. I tell you, I am sure going to have some fun spending the husband's paychecks! Heh heh.

Sterling is getting a little more settled into his job. He likes the guys he works with, so that's really good. We're just still working on getting accustomed to this whole 60+ hour workweek thing.

I've also gotta mention that I'm a very lucky girl who gets surprises like this from her wonderful husband:

Sweet, right?

I think we're going to go to the rodeo in IF tomorrow night. Sterling has been trying to win tickets to it from our local country radio station all yesterday and today, but no luck. Looks like we'll just have to suck it up and pay the $25 :)

Until next time!