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!!

Oh baby! Finding Out the Sex......

For Mike and I, the very most exciting part of our Holiday season happened on December 19th because it’s the day that we found out the sex of our baby!!!  We had been anxiously anticipating this day ever since we found out we were pregnant.  We couldn’t wait.  I have no idea how people can go without finding out... I’m way too impatient! To be honest, from the very beginning I was 100% sure that our baby was a boy.  I just felt it.  I don’t even know how to explain it, but I just knew.  From the very start I've felt such an instant connection with this little baby growing inside of me (as I’m sure all expectant mothers do), and I have felt so so strongly that a very special little boy was going to come to our family.  The crazy thing is that most of our family members and close friends were convinced it was a boy as well.

Both Mike and I were totally giddy for weeks before our appointment.  My doctor does ultra sounds at every visit so we’d seen the baby a few times already, but this was the day we’d find out for sure what the sex was!  As we were driving to the ultra sound I told Mike that if it wasn’t a boy I would be completely SHOCKED, and that I'd make the doctor check again.  I was that sure.  He was pretty darn sure it was a boy as well, but he thought there was a possibility it could be a girl.  

We had decided beforehand that we weren’t going to have the doctor tell us the sex of the baby at our appointment because we wanted to have a big celebration that night and find out with our  family!  We figured it would be fun to have so many of the people that already love our baby so much there to share in our exciting news.  The appointment went well, and the doctor wrote the sex of the baby on an ultra sound and sealed it in an envelope.   It was SO HARD not to open up the envelope, but we wanted to wait for the big reveal.  

A couple of hours later we gathered at my parents house for a big party!  All of my siblings and their spouses, as well as both sets of my grandparents were there.  Sadly, all of Mike’s brothers and their families live on the east coast so they couldn’t make it, but his parents were on speaker phone with us from Idaho, anxiously awaiting the news.  When everyone arrived we had them take either a pink or blue punch, depending on what they thought the baby was.  

Most people took blue, but a few took pink just in case it was a girl (we’d hate to have her look back at photos and think that everyone wanted a boy).  Mike and I both took blue punch.  

Everyone gathered around.  I was shaking profusely because I was so so so excited!  It felt almost like opening my mission call again (except this time there wasn't even the possibility of a bad thing written on the paper- like Cleveland!  hahahah.  I knew this time, I wouldn't burst into tears because I was sad.  Oh how wrong I was about Cleveland.  Funny how my mission to Cleveland actually made this day possible!)  Anyway, together, Mike and I opened up the envelope..... 

Just as I knew, it was a BOY!!!!!  We are going to have a BABY BOY!!!!!!

We couldn't even contain our excitement!

Wahoooo!!!!!!!

I also couldn't contain my emotions.... I'm going to be a mama!!  Nothing has ever sounded so wonderful.

Everyone was so excited and supportive!

To say we're excited for this little mister to arrive would be a HUGE understatement.

Best Christmas Ever!!!!

Christmas in Photos

Just in case you didn't get our Christmas Card....

Best Christmas Gift EVER.

We are so grateful, and beyond excited.

P.S. If you didn't get this in the mail, don't feel bad.  I didn't send out our cards till after Christmas, and we only got about half of our list tackled.  Love you all!

Playing Catchup Part 2: Saying Goodbye to our First Apartment

A few weeks ago, Mike and I moved from our very first apartment.  I was a total basket case.  (Luckily Mike likes the fact that I'm a very passionate person.)  I honestly thought I was going to be fine through the whole process, but the night before the movers came to pick up our furniture, I found myself cleaning out the drawers in the kitchen just sobbing, and I ended up crying myself to sleep.  I know that change is the only constant in our lives, and that it's good, but sometimes change is so hard.  And sad.  It's so bitter sweet to move on from a really good thing, even though you know the next phase will be just as good.  You know what I mean?

Mike and I lived in our little shoebox apartment for the past year and a half, and to be honest, I've never been happier.  When we found it, we knew it wasn't much (no dishwasher, no washer/dryer, TINY, etc) but it felt so, so right.  After looking at about 30 places, we just KNEW this place was meant to be ours.  And it was.  We've met so many lifelong friends, grown so much as a couple, and seriously have had the time of our lives in that little old apartment.  We knew that it was time to go and move on to other things, but it was really sad for me to leave it.

Some of my favorite memories in our little place:
- listening to our Haitian neighbor Quinten laugh through the walls
- hearing our neighbors Fabio and Bernarda listen to their spanish music
- Barbequing on our little grill on our front porch walkway
- having dessert parties with friends and sitting on the floor because it was so small and we didn't have enough seating for everyone
- summer nights walking through memory grove
- morning runs through the avenues
- sleeping on a blowup mattress in the family room in the summer next to the AC because our room was SO HOT!
- Mike's home-made ice-packs for me in our hot room
- trying to brush our teeth together in our tiny bathroom sink (one of us usually ended up in the kitchen while the other was in the bathroom)
- being so close in proximity to each other all of the time
- realizing that you don't need a lot of "things" to be truly happy- we both LOVED living minimally and having such a small space- learning that all we really need to be happy is each other
- our bright yellow wall that we painted randomly one saturday morning and all of the little art projects and decorating we did together there

And just for the fun of it, here are some photos of our first apartment (yes, it really is as small as it looks!)

this was actually taken the day we moved into our apt- pre curtains and decorations.  I think it was the only day the bed ever got made:)

Yes, this was our closet.  Poor mike had like 5 shirts hanging up is all!

Okay.  Moving on.  The moving part itself was sad, but now that we are all settled in, we are LOVING LOVING LOVING our new digs!  (It's nice to move up in the world after all- as charming as a one bedroom apartment is, it's pretty cool to be in a house!)


Last winter, my grandma fell down the stairs in her home and broke her arm, shoulder, and leg.  It was absolutely horrible.  After surgeries, wheelchairs, and months of recovery, my grandparents decided that it was probably time to move to a place that didn't have stairs- somewhere where they could grow old comfortably (they are still really young).  They bought a beautiful place in the avenues that fit the bill, but decided that they didn't want to sell their home.  Several months ago, they approached Mike and I and asked us if we'd like to live there for the next few years or so.  They were leaving the home fully furnished, and they just wanted someone to live there and take care of the property.  Of course we were completely overjoyed and overcome with gratitude at this opportunity so we didn't hesitate to say yes!  The great part, is that it's located just minutes from our apartment in the avenues- it's in a beautiful neighborhood up City Creek Canyon.  We are literally a two minute drive from downtown, yet we live in a peaceful neighborhood and have a canyon as our backyard.

Mike and I don't really know what to do with all of this space, and we are really enjoying having a dishwasher, washer/dryer and garage!  Man, we learned not to take for granted the simple things! Just to put things in perspective for you- our bedroom/ master closet is bigger than our old entire apartment!  ha!  So grateful for my wonderful, generous grandparents.  They are some of the most amazing, most giving people that I know, and I am so proud to be their granddaughter.  We love them so much.

Pictures to come!!