Choo Choo

So for Thanksgiving this year we decided to go see Bret's family in Omaha Nebraska. We have driven there before and boy is it a loooong drive. We kept throwing around the idea of taking a train. I have always wanted to take a train. One of my favorite authors Susan Branch takes one clear from Maratha's Vineyard to California and she tweets about it along the way, this really got me interested in them. Oh and Harry Potter made me love trains too!

Anyways we ended up taking the train there and flying home. The train left at 3:oo a.m. the wednesday before Thanksgiving so my poor mom had to come pick us up and take us to the station in downtown SLC. We got on and this black guy asks Bret for his tickets...now Bret is carrying Fallen and 2 large bags and our tickets are in one of his hands in the envelope they had just given us. The guy looks at Bret and says, "That doesn't look like tickets" So Bret had to maneuver himself and open the stupid envelope for the dude. Ridiculous. But funny looking back on it.

We got to our TINY room and couldn't believe the engineering it took to make something so small work. I can't even explain to you how small the room was. It had two bunks and a window took up the whole outside wall. We slept and ate in the dining car. We had gorgeous views out our window too.

We arrived in Omaha at 5am Thanksgiving day. We stayed with Bret's cousin Jesse in a really nice and clean apartment. Thank goodness it was clean, it made the trip much more enjoyable for me.

Dinner was at Bret's aunt Debra's house. And it was delicious. The only hard part was Fallen gets hungry when he smells food so I felt like I had to feed him a lot. Good thing Emily let me use her nursing cover, it was a life saver.

Every morning Bret's grandparents Harry and Harriet eat breakfast at this little cafe inside of a grocery store called No Frills. We met them there every morning at 9am. They share a powdered donut and an egg every single day! It was so funny. Everyone there knows them and the cooks have there food ready as soon as they see them walk in.

It was a good trip and we had fun. Bret got to go to the Nebraska game thanks to his cousin-in-law Collin. He has always wanted to go and finally got the chance.

When we flew home they messed up our tickets and put us on an emergency exit aisle and you can't be on one with an infant. So they split us up. We got on the plane and there were these 2 huge guys with a seat in the middle. Guess who? Yep me and Fallen had to squeeze in there. And of course about 20 minutes before we landed Fallen started fussing and I had to try and nurse him in about a foot of space. Luckily he just needed some soothing and fell right asleep. Bret took a picture of me from across the aisle.

All in all it was a little adventure for our family and we will for sure do the train again but we will be getting a bigger room.

Oh and Fallen really started smiling while we were there. So fun!

Chubba Lova Lova

I always said that I wanted a fat baby and boy do I have one! Fallen is getting so big! I know they say babies grow super fast and this little guy is no exception. At his 2 month appt he was in the 99% for weight and 92% for height. I love it! I don't know why he is so big? He was only 6lbs. 10 oz. when he was born. All I know is that he is a great nurser and that is Great for me. It took a lot of work getting us both there but we survived! We both deserve an award for that first month! LOL!

Right now he is 3 1/2 months old and wears 9 months old clothing...

Fallen Danger Foust

Well our little baby boy is here! Fallen Danger Foust was born September 24th 2011 at 3:22am. I went to one of my weekly appointments and they told me I had high blood pressure and protein in my urine so that meant I had pre-eclampsia. The only cure is to have the baby. So we were back at the hospital an hour later.

When we got checked in they gave me a drug called Cytotec to thin my cervix, once it was thin enough then they gave me Pitocen to start my contractions. My doctor broke my water and told me she could feel the sutures of his scalp, things were on there way. Poor Bret had to rub my back during contractions because all my pain was in my back.

My nurse checked me when I was at a 5 and then told me she wanted a second opinion so 2 other nurses checked me. They felt bum not head coming down! So they called my doctor and in the mean time they did an ultra-sound and sure enough his little bum was coming down the birth canal. My doctor said he must of turned...yeah right! When he was born his bum was covered in bloody gashes from her breaking my water!

So they double dosed me with an epidural (which by the way does not hurt at all) and wheeled me into the O.R. at 3:08am and he was born at 3:22am. They were super fast! My anesthesiologist Dr.Edwards was amazing! He told us everything that was going on during the surgery. Bret stood up and watched the whole thing! It was so amazing that they could just cut him out of me like that.

The hospital was incredible! The nurses made us feel like we were in a hotel for 4 days. I had a nurse named Alicia who helped me with breast feeding. I don't think I would have kept up with the breast feeding if she hadn't helped me. I didn't really get the hang of breast feeding until he was about 4 weeks old. Now it is pretty simple, just time consuming. I felt pretty much completely healed around 4 weeks. The scar is very subtle, thank goodness.

Fallen is an Angel baby too! He hardly ever cries unless you don't get the boob to him fast enough! All he does is grunt all day...So cute! He has changed so much, now he looks like a little buddah baby 'cause he is so so fat! I love fat babies!

House Plans...

We have had these for awhile now but I haven't posted them. We are so excited to one day build our dream home! Utah housing has come down so much, but it is still a ton of money to build compared to other states.

This is the front view of our house. I am thinking brown hardy board slats and dark barn red brick. I also want to paint my front door red just like my G'ma Davis!

Here is the back view. I love love love the back or our house! It will be a walk-out basement and our view is of the Rocky Mountains. Oh how I love Utah's mountains! The basement window on the left will be in my salon. Can't even contain myself on how sweet that'll be to work from home with my babies!

This is the main floor. We somewhat copied our friend Robbie's house plans even though his house is HUGE! We used the same concept of turning the 3rd bedroom into a huge master walk-in closet and bathroom. Notice the see through fireplace in the master? Awesome! We will have our 3rd bedroom in the bonus room above the garage. We love the arch way stairs in the front landing. So pretty!

I get to design the whole kitchen. So I am kind of glad we are waiting to build because I keep getting so many ideas on what to do.

Also notice the separate entrance on the inside of the garage? My clients will park on the side of our house and then walk down to the salon. No shoveling needed!

Here is our basement. We are only going to finish the salon since that is the main feature. The other rooms will come later.

The bonus room above the garage. We will probably have Bret's mom stay up in the 3rd bedroom until our 2nd kid is born, then who knows...?

Home Ideas, one day...

So I am a little paranoid about an Armageddon happening. And I know that we should have a better food storage. We just don't have room in our little townhome for any storage. So when we build our new home one day I am bound and determined to include a few things including the canned food. Such as a really cute chicken coop! My parents neighbor's had chickens and I was so envious. I think as long as you don't have a loud mouth rooster then you can have chickens?

What do you think of this weekend project for my handy man?

I also want a solar powered generator! Maybe I'll ask for one for christmas, except I think they are at least $1,500. Yowza!

One thing Bret and I both want is a rain water storage collector. You can either bury them or have above ground barrels. I would rather bury it so you don't have to take up room and they aren't very pretty to look at.

You can use your water to water your garden or wash your car and it's free! I also want a compost tumbler. I am sure we could make a DIY one easily though.

Baby buys...

Here are a few items that we have bought. The first is a convertible car seat made by Recaro. It is really a neat car seat, they make race car seats, which is awesome especially to Bret. Bret's boss Gary bought this for us which was a generous gift! It fits 5 to 70 lbs. and up to 50 inches.

I also am going to start cloth diapering at home. I wont be one of those crazy moms who is swishing their diapers in the toilet at Wal-Mart, don't worry! But I am really excited and have researched hours and hours on cloth diapers. The diapers I am getting are called Bum Genius 4.0 and are sweet! Then I bought some liners to put on the diapers that catch most of the pooh and all you have to do is flush it. Much better then putting feces in the landfill to pollute our drinking water. I also had to buy some organic laundry soap and stain remover.

Here is a break down of disposable vs. cloth;

We also made a count down chain. So cute! We have 55 days left 'till Baby Foust. (estimated) That also means we have 55 days left to decide on a name and get everything ready. oH boy!

Sophia sleep over and Raging Water Madness...

Sophie is always asking to sleep over at our house. She loves sleeping over anywhere. Chris and Emily have decided only to let their girls sleepover at certain family members homes or have their friends sleepover at Chris and Em's. I don't blame them! People are messed up and if anyone ever hurt my girls I wouldn't think twice about hurting them! I can't imagine how I'll feel when our little guy wants his first sleepover? I will just make sure that all his friends want to sleepover at our house because we will have the coolest house on the block! ;)

Anyways, Bret had to watch her for an hour or so before I got off work and they colored me a picture. We let her do a Roman Candle for the 24th of July (the day Utah became a state), then we walked over to Arctic Circle that night. We went to our pool and tried to get her to jump in which she did once and then decided she didn't like it. Stella on the other hand is a fish!

My orthodontist rents out a waterslide amusement park for the day and his patients get in free, their guests get half off admission, and we all get a piece of pizza, cookie, and a drink. It was so busy, it was insane. I didn't think that many people would be there! Let's just say that we will not be doing that again! We had fun and it was funny walking around with my big belly hangin' out!

7 Year Anniversary!

Happy 7 Year Anniversary to us! We were lucky enough to receive a gift card from Bret's mom Laura and her husband Bill to, Ruth's Chris Steak House. It is sooo good! Can you tell Bret and I are major foodies? We of course got the filet mignon and the best ever sweet potato casserole. They even gave us a free cheesecake dessert that was big enough for 5 people!

Bret also surprised me with a beautiful ring that I had noticed once at a jewelry store. So pretty. He is in trouble 'cause he always spoils me way too much.

I ordered him a BYU Rugby sweatshirt. We laugh because there is no way Bret would ever wear anything BYU, but, our friends play on the team and it is so much fun to watch!

Oh and my dad kept teasing me about the "7 year itch" which is funny because our "7 year itch" consists of us having a baby! ha ha!

Don't mind all the pictures of just me, Bret wouldn't let me take any of him...

More Dinners...

Here are a few meals that I have made lately. The first is a cheesesteak sandwich made with sliced cube steak, rosemary potatoes, grilled corn salad, and the best for last...Brazilian Limeade. So good! You put the whole quartered lime in a blender and then strain the pulp. Insanely good on a hot summer night!

The next meal is one that I forgot to take a picture of, so you get to see the leftover bowl of pesto pasta with roasted tomatoes and mushrooms. It was delicious! We had our friends Heidi and John Swalberg over and then we went and saw Horrible Bosses, which was hilarious.

Then the last meal is a basil tomato pizza. I am a little obsessed with basil if you can't tell...

Most of these recipes are from a cookbook called The Pioneer Woman Cooks. I was introduced to it by Paloma Davis, my cousin Nathan's cute lil' wife. Hi Loma! This book is a must have. But let me warn you, nothing in this is low-fat.

Baby Toes!

Here is a really rare and cute picture of our baby boy. I had an ultrasound on June 2oth my b-day (great present!) and would you believe it, he was sucking on his toes! So cute! He's hungry...

I love cooking!

So I said I was going to start posting what I was cooking. I have made quite a few great dinners but by the time I remember to take pictures we already had eaten it! Which is what kind of happened last night. I made Lemon Zuchinni Pasta, Layered Salad, Rosemary Foccacia Bread, and Mini Raspberry Cheesecakes. It was super good! You grill the chicken and zuchinni which makes it taste so much better then just baking them. The bread is so easy, you don't even need to knead it. And the cheesecakes are so cute! You use a vanilla wafer in the bottom of the cupcake liner.

Here are some pictures of our half eaten dinner! lol!

And here are the cookbook's that I am obsessed with right now. They have real life food not stuff that you would never cook. Our Best Bites has a blog and they always have tutorials on how to do things.

Woah Baby!

I really have a lot to put in this post today. First things first we are having a baby! Yay! It is a little boy and I am due the first week in October. We weren't really trying, but it happens! We wanted to wait til probably the end of this year 2011 once our house was built and then I could do hair from home. Oh well...

Here is me at 20 weeks, 1/2 way chub a lub!

Speaking of our house. It has been crazy stressful trying to get everything figured out. We had planned on selling our townhome but it really isn't worth it, we would probably owe or break even on it. So we decided that we are going to rent it out. In order to rent it out you can't have 2 fha loans and we have our closing costs and mortgage on 2 separate loans. We bought this home when we were 19 so we didn't have money we were broke! haha! Anyways we are going to pay off the 1/2 acre lot we bought in West Jordan and refinance our townhome all by the end of this year. Oh and pay for a baby! Woops! Didn't plan that very well.

I have decided you can't plan out your life for a baby or you will never have one...

One of the great things about being pregnant right now is that I have reduced my hours at the salon from around 50+ to about 30+! It is wonderful! I was getting really burned out working that much and never seeing Bret. Now when the baby comes I will only need my mom to watch on Mondays from 11-3. I don't see why people work just to pay for daycare? I do get a little bored having tues-friday morning off, but I always can't believe that friday evening has come around already and it's time to work. Plus I get to see my Sophie more!

Enough boring everyone with my updates...

I have decided to blog about the meals I have been cooking also. I LOVE to cook and I haven't been able to even go into the kitchen til I hit about 19 weeks. It is still iffy... So today since I wont be home til around 8:30 I am making creamy mexican chicken tacos in the crockpot. I love the fresh salsa from Harmons and it always goes bad before we can eat it so I am using it today. You take 2 or 3 frozen chicken breasts and throw them in the crockpot, then add 8 oz. cream cheese (lowfat opt.) and then your salsa. Let it cook on low for 7-8hrs and then shred it with 2 forks and put it on tortillas with toppings. Yummy. My mom taught me that recipe. Tomorrow night we are having burgers, fries, and green beans. My g'mas green bean recipe. I'll try to remember to post that recipe. We are going to the BYU national champ Rugby game tomorrow. Our friend Mikey Su'a is playing his last game...

Susan Branch.

I should just say that this blog is all about Me "Melissa" since I am the only one who blogs on here. Because Bret is most definitely not obsessed with Susan Branch like I am. She has the most beautiful books ever! It is my goal to collect every single one. Why do I love her stuff? Because I feel like she is writing them just for me. She hand writes and paints all of them. They remind me of my grandma Davis with the country feel through out them. I always thought I would never like the country type decor and that I was more modern but I am slowly turning into my mother/aunts/grandmother.

Here are the 4 books that I have so far...

Baby Love, Girlfriends Forever, Vineyard Seasons, Autumn.

Here is one of her prints that I want to put in my guest bathroom one day! ;)

I was given Girlfriends Forever by a friend in high school and fell in love with it!