New Blog Address

Family and Friends,

Once baby James was born and we became a family of three I figured it was probably appropriate to retire my college blog ( becomingyourdream.blogspot.com was a lame name anyway that I'm happy to get rid of).  I've gone ahead and created a new family blog that will detail the lives of myself, Mike, and little James.  I know, it's about time being that Mike and I have been married for 2.5 years now.  But better late than never, right?

Here is our new blog address:
http://mikeandandreabergeson.blogspot.com/

Follow to stay caught up on our adventures (let's be honest- it will mostly just be pictures of our baby James because we can't get enough of him)!  If you have a blog that I'm not aware of let me know- it's a great way to stay connected!

Family of Three

I've squeezed a lot into my 27 years of life.

I've been a lot of places, seen a lot of things, and been blessed with so many opportunities.

But nothing compares to the joy I've experienced over the past two weeks.

Being a mother tops everything.

We are completely smitten by our little mister.

We love his big blue eyes, pouty lips, serious resting face, and blondie hair.

He's a cute little wiggle worm (just like he was in the womb), he loves playing with his hands, hates being swaddled, loves being burped, and sleeps like a champ through the night already.

He looks like his mom, but has the calm, contented, easy-going temperament of his dad.

He is a wise old soul, and has brought an incredible spirit to our home.

His grandparents & aunts and uncles can't get enough of him.  

He is absolutely perfect.

Mike has had the past two weeks off work, and we've been soaking up every single moment together as a little family of three.

Our Sweet Baby James

Best Birthday Present Ever: Becoming a Mother to a beautiful baby boy.

James Cleveland Bergeson

Born May 27th at 12:12 am 

7lbs. 13 oz, 19.5 inches long

and perfect in EVERY way.

We are SO in LOVE.  

I think back to just five days ago and wonder how we ever thought our lives were complete without our sweet baby James.  The process of this beautiful and perfect baby coming to our little family has been wonderful, beautiful, emotional, sacred, life altering and full of love.  Our hearts have been changed, and have made more room for this tiny little soul than I EVER dreamed possible.  Life could not be sweeter.  Being a mama to this extremely sweet, chunky, angel baby boy is by far the best thing that's ever happened to me (in addition to me marrying my wonderful husband).  xoxo

BEST Mother's Day Present EVER.

For Mother's Day this year, Mike gave me the greatest gift ever.  He decided to surprise me and re-do our bedroom!  He knows how much I've been itching to get it done, but we've been so busy with lots of other projects (read: baby nursery, getting ready for baby, etc) that I had accepted the fact that it wasn't going to happen until after the baby was born sometime this summer. 
The week  before the big day, he gave me a present to open and told me it was an early Mother's Day Present.  The bag had all of our paint supplies in it.  He told me that our bedroom was going to be off-limits for the next few days.  The only thing I had to do was pick out the paint that I wanted.  I had already had the paint swatch picked out for months, so that was easy! 
Mike literally spent every hour for the next two days (we're talking OVER 20 hours here) stripping wallpaper, moving furniture, taping, and painting.  Talk about LOVE!  Our bedroom is so big and has so much woodwork that I was SHOCKED he got it all done in two days!  Once the whole thing was complete, he walked me in for the big reveal. 

I almost started crying.  I married such a gem.  He is the most kind, thoughtful, giving, and loving person that I know.  He does SO much for me, and this is just a small example of the way that he treats me every day.  I truly do not deserve him. 

Here are the before and after photos.
BEFORE:

AFTER:

Here is the little annex to our room that goes out to the balcony.  The vintage bassinet is handed around from cousin to cousin- the baby will sleep in here until we move him to his nursery.

 The walkway from the annex to our bedroom

 

 I love how the dark paint makes the fire place pop!

So pretty!  I LOVE how it turned out!

And here is the view from our balcony.

Thanks Mike, you're the BEST HUSBAND EVER.

Love you.

xoxo

Lately.

The past couple of months have literally flown!  It's a busy business growing a baby and getting ready for a little mister to come and live with you!  Between getting the nursery all ready (photos to come later), planting our first vegetable garden, working on our yard (okay, mostly Mike), finishing his first year of nursing school with a perfect GPA (ALL Mike!), doing updates to the house (more photos later), grilling basically every night on the patio, working like a mad woman and wrapping up a lot of projects at the office, celebrating Mike's birthday, going on one last getaway with Mike before the little man comes, going on a Girl's weekend with my mom, sister, and sister-in-law, being spoiled with amazing baby showers by family and friends, and enjoying these last couple months of alone time together... it's been one wild and crazy ride!  Here are a few photos.....

We actually went to a few Jazz Games this year.  I scored awesome tickets from work and so Bennett and Stacie came with us to one of the games.  Mike and Bennett were in heaven being so close, and Stacie and I mostly enjoyed people watching!

 

I think Mike was very proud that I could name at least 3 of the players from the Jazz:)

We live in the best ward ever!  It's such a tight knit small group of people (it reminds me of a branch I served in in Chardon, OH) and everyone is SO kind and giving.  My cute ward friends threw me such a fun baby shower!

 Little sissy graduated from BYU!  So proud of her!  She already has a job lined up to start this August teaching 5th graders at a Title 1 school.. she's going to be an amazing teacher.  Pretty sure all of the 10 year old boys are going to fall in love with her:)

 

On April 20th Mike turned 24!  We celebrated by going to Stacie's BYU graduation and luncheon that morning, then Mike's parents came down from Idaho and we celebrated by going shopping and to dinner with them! 

 

The next day, Mike and I celebrated by going up to my parent's place in Heber for a couple relaxing days.  We watched almost a whole season of Seinfeld, ate every meal in, slept in, plaid cards by the pool, and just enjoyed being together.  Mike also worked on his golf swing for a few hours, while I sat and got some sun and read my "Gift of Motherhood" book.  

We were both happy with our respective activities.  I actually got a nice tan!

We're all about dragging birthdays out for as long as possible.... we had another party with my family a few days later. 
More to come later!

General Conference Weekend

General Conference Weekends in April and October are always two of my very favorite weekends of the year.  We get to listen to the leaders of our church speak to the world and address topics that are so relevant to our lives.  It's always so inspiring and uplifting to my soul, and this April General Conference was no different.

This year, we spent the weekend up at my parent's home in Heber and spent Saturday and Sunday relaxing, enjoying the beautiful weather, and listening to the prophets of God.

Here I am 7 months pregnant!  This baby boy is growing!

It just so happened that Mike's parents were passing through town, so they, along with a bunch of my extended family, came up Saturday night and we had a big birthday party for my mom (after the Priesthood session of course).  Carol's birthday was also that week, so we had a little birthday party at our house with her a few days earlier. 

We are so grateful for our mothers and the wonderful women that they are!  Mom and Carol, we love you both!  Thanks for being so great!

Spring Break

Last month we took off and headed down south for a little spring break getaway.  My two little brothers (well, I should say younger- they are both way bigger than me now) were playing in a big tennis tournament down in St. George, and so most of my family made the trip down to support them.  We stayed at my aunt and uncle's vacation home with a bunch of teenage boys, went to movies, ate yummy food, played lots of games, watched Roger Federer win Indian Wells and March Madness on ESPN, and most importantly spent hours at the tennis courts watching the live games.

If you've never gotten into watching tennis before you are really missing out!  I was raised in a big tennis family- my mom and I are the only ones who haven't played competitively (once the baby is born and I'm not working full time anymore my mom and I are going to take some lessons).  Before we got married Mike hadn't ever spent a lot of time watching tennis, but he loves it now too.  It's one of my very favorite competitive sports to watch! 

My brothers are both amazing players- Ethan and his doubles partner took 1st place in the Varsity 1st doubles division, and Preston and his doubles partner took 2nd place (they lost on a heartbreaking tie breaker set) in the J.V. 1st doubles division.  Viewmont, their High School and my alma mater) took 1st place overall out of the 16 schools attending.  We were so proud of them! 

 

Proudly displaying our "V"'s to cheer on the Vikes!  

 

Me at 6.5 months pregnant- I'm finally showing!  Yay!

On Sunday we went to Sacrament mtg, then we attended the St. George visitors center and walked around the temple grounds.  Monday morning before we left we went and did sealings at the temple.  It was my first time inside the St. George temple- it was so old and so pretty.  

After stopping at the Bear Paw, we made our way home Monday evening.

Can't wait until next year!  

Happy Valentine's Day!

I LOVE Valentine's Day! Don't you think it's great that a whole day is dedicated to celebrating love of all forms in your life?  Mike is well aware by now that I like to celebrate holiday's for an entire week, and this Valentine's season was no different! There were lots of chick flicks, caramel hershey's kisses, ju ju hearts and cuddling at the Bergeson residence this month!

One of our annual Valentine traditions is to make sugar cookies!  Our kitchen turned into a cookie factory for a couple days while we made about a billion sugar cookies for our neighbors.  Mike was a really great sport, and helped me frost every last cookie (he definitely would have won a 'most creative cookie decorating' award).  

The night before Valentine's day we got all dolled up and went out to a fancy steakhouse for dinner.  We decided that's the way to do it- go out to celebrate the night before to beat the mad crazy V-day rush and enjoy a quiet, romantic, delicious dining experience.  

And just for kicks, here's a little 'bump' picture.  I'm stoked I finally sort of have one!  Yay!  (Most people are still surprised when they find out I'm pregnant- they just assume I've eaten too much fudge over the holidays and am getting a chunky tummy).

Mike insisted that he was going to plan our actual Valentine's Day evening.  I got home from work to find grilled lemon chicken and an out of this world cheese fondue for the two of us!  We enjoyed a romantic dinner with Frank Sinatra serenading us in the background, and finished up the evening by exchanging love letters and gifts, eating chocolate and sugar cookies, and cuddling.  So grateful I married this gem of a husband.  I feel like the luckiest lady in the whole world.  

Mike, I love you to the moon and back!!

Hope you all had a wonderful V-day!!