Maternity Pictures

While we were in Utah I had my sister take some pictures for us. I didn't feel the need to pay someone a lot of money to take them, but I wanted a few to look back on and remember! My parents' backyard was perfect and beautiful. I'm so glad we had some done and my sister did a great job!! Especially for not ever having any classes - although she's someone who is good at anything she tries. Thanks tons Emilee!!!

He was kicking and moving tons during this picture. Luckily we were able to just sit and watch my belly move for all of it.

I love this picture! I feel like my belly is HUGE in this one.

Baby Cragun

I seriously cannot believe how fast time has gone! I will 33 weeks tomorrow! Only 7 left. I know babies come when they are ready and some don't make it to 40 weeks, but I hope ours does because I want him as developed as possible before he is born. Although I am SO excited he's almost here and I can hardly wait to see what he looks like! We are getting things all ready to go! Everything is up and put together other than finishing the dresser we bought. The sanding is almost done so all that's left after that is to stain it. Sounds quick and easy but nothing on this project has been quick and easy so we'll see what happens. Hopefully we get it done sooner than later though, in the off chance our baby comes early! I had a doctor's appointment last week and she said he is already head down so that is good! That was something I was nervous about.
We got lots of baby items from the 2 showers back home! First thing I did when we got back was wash all the clothes we have already. They are washed, folded, sorted according to size, and sitting in the crib waiting to be put in the dresser. Our ward here will be giving us a shower the end of August so I'll have more clothes to wash I'm sure, but at least most of it is done. Also all the blankets have been washed and are in their place in a bookshelf - at least that's where I think they will go. I'm still figuring out and deciding for sure where I want things. It will help having the dresser done and seeing what goes in there.
I have some pictures to figure out where to hang. I got the frames at Goodwill, sanded them down, and painted them silver. We have 3 airplane pictures to go in each of them of different times in history, so one old one, one during WWII, and then one currently - I think, I'll have to double check that with Collin since he's the planes guy. There's an airplane mobile hung over his crib. We have a model P-47 airplane that Collin's dad built for Collin back in the day from metal from old airplanes that I'm thinking will sit on the top of the dresser, but I'm not sure, still deciding on that one. We now just need to get a picture of the Nauvoo temple to put in his room.
I am still feeling great. I'm starting to feel big, but I don't feel huge or fat, just very pregnant. I swear this morning I woke up and got even bigger somehow during the night. I am starting to get uncomfortable during the evenings. I have a hard time getting comfortable while sitting. Luckily I can still sleep just fine other than waking up and having to go to the bathroom. I also am hot almost constantly. Thankfully today is stormy and cool outside. I'm even wearing pants in the middle of summer - weird! I'm very happy I am still able to wear my wedding ring and my feet only get a tiny bit swollen if I'm on them a lot during the day. Bending over is pretty much impossible for me now, but Collin's been great at doing things for me that I can't really do anymore. We were just saying this morning how it'll be weird to see me skinny again. We're just used to my pregnant belly now, even though sometimes I get a little surprised when I look in the mirror.

In Utah at 30 weeks, right before a baby shower

The baby quilt I made is all finished! I tied it in Utah with my mom, sister, Grandma, and my mother-in-law

I love it!!!

All the blankets, shoes, and a few things on the top shelf I'm still figuring out what I want to do with.

All the clothes, towels, and 5 quilts for our little boy!!!

Last week at 32 weeks

Our carseat & stroller from my parents

Road Trip Home

After our fun and busy vacation in Utah we were happy to come back home and have life calm back down. Collin and I have been meaning to take pictures of the funny things we get to see on our way to and from Utah. Unfortunately the first one it was too dark to see. It's a tree growing out a rock in Wyoming that is very important there - I guess cause it's the only thing to see there. There's pullout spots to look at it and in a fence so nobody can touch it. We laugh everytime we see it though cause really it's nothing extraordinary, but to Wyoming it's awesome!

Here's a weird coyote thing in Nebraska

Welcome to what the whole drive through Nebraska looks like

Here's a strange bird??? type thing on the corners of an over pass in Nebraska

I believe this is in Omaha, NE but these are decorated silos right off I-80

I don't remember where this is.... but I do know I still have no clue what it's supposed to be

Iowa has a lot of these windmills. And the day we were driving the sky combined with the windmills and the corn fields just looked so beautiful!

Most of Iowa is full of cornfields, but we actually think it is really pretty!

That's how big one of the blades on the windmills is

We finally stopped here! It's only like 10 min from our house so we can go another time but it's crazy big for a truckstop. There's a foodcourt, nice bathrooms, movie theater, chiropractor, dentist, massage therapist, gift shop, pretty much anything you could ever need while on the road. 

We made it home safe and were SO glad to be home. We miss our families of course, but there's no place like home!

Dallin & Megan's Wedding

We were so excited to be able to be in Utah for when my brother Dallin and his fiance Megan got married! It was a great day and we were so happy to be able to celebrate with them. They got sealed in the Bountiful Temple. The sealing was great and they even had a former member of the Presiding Bishopric, Richard C. Edgley, seal them making it even more special! My mom asked my sister to follow the photographer around and get even more pictures, so I stayed with her following Dallin, Megan, and the photographer around. Luckily there was quite a bit of shade for me to sit in! We then had the wedding luncheon at my parents church. We had subs, brownies, and several different kinds of salads - pasta, potato, and coleslaw. It was super good and very filling for the rest of the day and evening. We then cleaned up and went to the house to get things ready in the backyard. However, from walking around at the temple and being so extremely busy our whole vacation I very much needed a nap. There was a little break that we were able to sit and talk so instead I went and laid on my mom's bed and took a short nap. Oh man did it help tons! Then we got all ready for the reception in my parent's backyard. It all looked so cute out there! Megan wanted to serve different kinds of popcorn and have it be in peach baskets that we tied with blue fabric around the top. It was such a cute idea. They used the Lifetime picnic tables for seating and had cream table cloths, burlap table runners, and a navy blue square in the middle with jars with sand and navy blue pinwheels. It all looked really cute! The reception was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed seeing family and friends again!
Just like my usual self, I didn't take ANY pictures from that day - SORRY! Just trust me when I say it looked really cute! And Dallin and Megan looked great and happy and in love :)

My Big Little Brother

For the past two years My Big Little Brother Taft has been on an LDS church mission to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. We missed him tons. We would write him every week and we'd hear from him once a week, but it just isn't the same as having him home. Well he was able to come home July 8! We were so excited we would be able to be in Utah when he got home! His flight was coming in at 12:15ish I believe. Well they were running a little behind schedule and was actually landing at 12:40. The whole family all went to the airport and got there around 11:45. All 16 of us were there in our "hi-liter" yellow shirts. That's what Taft's nickname was before his mission since he loved wearing the bright hiliter color shirts. It was really cool to see that many super bright shirts. Well we waited and waited. It was 12:45 and his flight had landed but by 1:15 we still hadn't seen him walk through the airport. Our excitement was definitely dying and at about 1:45ish we finally heard he had missed his connecting flight and the flight he was on now was landing at 3:06. As we were all bummed, we left the airport and went to Little Caesar's to get some pizza since we were starving. We got back to the airport at 3 right before his flight landed.  Even though our excitement wasn't as high as it was earlier, when we got back to the airport it came right back! This time we only had to wait about 15 minutes before he walked through the airport and out the terminal where we were standing waiting! It was so good to see him! And like I did with my 2 older brothers who served missions, I cried when I finally got to hug him! He is an amazing example to me! He worked so hard for 2 full years and genuinely loved and cared for those people he taught, served, and got to know. His testimony grew tons and I definitely have learned a lot from watching how he's grown the last 2 years. I'm grateful for his hard work and his willing to serve our Heavenly Father.

The whole family with the cute sign my sister Heidi made that we all signed!

He's here!!!!!!

Utah Trip

We were so excited to go to Utah this time. We drove out there again this time. Everyone kept telling us we were crazy to drive it again, but we can't live our lives in fear and that was a freak accident that pretty much never happens. I was at Girls Camp the week before we left. Collin was able to come to Girls Camp the night before we planned on leaving and just spent the night there and we left straight from Camp once our ward's cleaning was all done. It was about half an hour North of Des Moines so leaving from camp took off about 2 hours of our drive. We had a pretty uneventful drive out there. We did it in two days. The first day we drove about 12 hours and decided to stop in Rawlins, WY and small little town. However, we had to go to 4 different hotels before we finally found one with an available room. We had to pay $100 for a room that had mold on the bathroom ceiling, smelled like smoke even though it was a non-smoking room, and for breakfast all they had was Raisin Bran, Frosted Flakes, and donuts. WAY overpriced if you ask me. But it was 11:30 at night when we stopped and we weren't going to keep driving around til we found someplace else. We finished the drive on Sunday and only had about 4 hours to do. It was nice getting to North Ogden at about lunchtime.
We had so much fun seeing our family and friends. The first Tuesday after we got there, my sisters-in-law and mother-in-law gave me a baby shower. It was fun to see the Cragun family and to get lots of cute and fun things for our baby. We then went to St. George with the Cragun family. I've already written about it in the previous blog post so I won't say much about it other than we had so much fun spending time with the family. We especially loved going to see The Little Mermaid at Tuacahn and swimming back at the house.
After St. George we got to meet up with our favorite people from Davenport. We were so lucky to have Dawn & Bryan and their kids as our neighbors! They were the greatest neighbors and friends! We love them all and are missing them like crazy! They just recently moved to Vegas for Bryan to start up his chiropractic office, but as they were driving out there we got to meet up in Salt Lake and have breakfast together! It was so much fun! It didn't really hit us that they were gone until we came back home though and they weren't here.
We also got to go to the temple several times while we were there. Dallin's fiance Megan received her endowments at Bountiful and we were there for that, we went to Brigham City for my parent's ward temple night and another time to do sealings with my family who were endowed, St. George with Collin's brother and niece for Baptisms for the Dead, and then my brother Dallin and his fiance got married in Bountiful that we were able to be there for! It was so nice having the temple so close that we were able to go a lot in the 3 weeks we were there.
There was a busy day full of showers while we were there too. It started out with a Baby Shower for me that the Barker Family and my friends came too. We got more cute things at this one! Lots of people that I have thank you notes to write to! Then the Barker family gave Megan a Bridal Shower which she got lots of groceries and food at! Lucky her!!! Then at night I had a Bridal Shower for my friend Rachael. It was so fun to see tons of family and friends in one day!
For the Fourth of July we went with my family to the North Ogden parade. It was pretty lame other than a few things. But it was very hot and we didn't have much water. By time we were done I was SO SO hot, dehydrated, and ornery. I was not a pleasant person to be around for a little bit. Even when we got back to my parent's house and had been there for a few hours I could not cool down. I was then forced to take a cold shower which I'm very grateful for since afterwards I felt MUCH better. Then that night we were invited to a swim and BBQ party at my parent's neighbors and then came back to my parent's for our traditional homemade ice cream & fireworks. The fireworks are shot off pretty much right behind my parents house so it's awesome watching from their house!
We got to see tons of friends too! We were able to get together with Zoe & Brienna, my 2 most favorite pianists from Weber! We went and got ice cream like we used to! It was so fun seeing and talking with them again. We miss talking and venting with them. We also got to hang out with Tucker & Kim. We were super good friends with them before and loved playing games with them. We got together to play games but then just ended up talking the whole night. It was fun to catch up with them.
Collin got to do lots of yard work for my dad, his parents, and even got to haul hay for my Grandma. My sister Emilee and her family came up to Utah as well as my Grandpa. It was good to see them all again. My brother Taft came home from his mission, which will have it's own post. Dallin and Megan got married, which will also have it's own post. We had a lot of fun while we were there, but we were definitely ready to come home and have life calm back down. Too much excitement and busyness for 3 weeks, hopefully I didn't forget anything.
And of course in my usual style, I did not take pictures like I should have! I only have a few to put on this post...

My wonderful sisters-in-law who threw the baby shower. Somehow my mother-in-law Mitzi didn't make it in the picture. Also we were missing Mandy and her girls who are in Vegas!

The best neighbors ever!!! We love you guys!

The pianists and our husbands/boyfriends

Cragun Family St. George Trip

We were in UT for the past 3 weeks so our blog has not stayed updated, even though it would make things a lot easier now that there's TONS to post about. But first I'll talk about the Cragun Family's trip to St. George. As our Christmas present last year Scott & Mitzi bought everyone tickets to see The Little Mermaid at Tuacahn. We were so excited to spend the weekend with the WHOLE Cragun family, something that doesn't happen a lot since we're in Iowa and one of Collin's brothers lives in Las Vegas with his family. Friday we drove down there in Rhees and Celeste's car. We weren't sure if we'd get to even see Rhees while we were in UT since he's teaching at a flight school in AZ, but he was able to come for the weekend so we were happy about that. The drive down there was fun. We stopped at a little Petting Zoo at a gas station in Scipio, UT. It was really cool and the little kids loved it! The had a zebra, camel, cows, goats, peacock, turkey, and I don't remember what else except for a zonkey - a donkey zebra mix. It was a fun little break in the drive! Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of that. We went to Red Robin for lunch and then went to the house we were staying at and swam for a little while. That night we then went to see Little Mermaid. It was so cute! They did lots of cool black lighting effects and the mermaids were on kind of like roller blades to help with the swimming idea. It was a cute little play and even though my nephews say they didn't like it, I'm sure they did! Of course the girls definitely loved it!

Saturday Collin, his brother Boone, Boone's daughter Rylee, and I went to the St. George temple to do Baptisms for the Dead. It was so nice being in the temple with them. We all really enjoyed it. Several of us went to Kneaders for lunch then we were all at a Kid's Museum for a little while. It was fun seeing how much the kids loved playing with the stuff there. There was one room that had a stage. One of our little niece's got up on the stage and sang and danced to the Frozen songs, it was SO cute! There was an airplane room that all the boys loved, a music room that had a keyboard and a few other things that made VERY loud music - you didn't want to be in there for very long, and several other rooms the kids loved. Then it was more swimming back at the house. Swimming while being 7 months pregnant was SO nice!! We then had lots of laughs that night.

Sunday we went to church with Rylee, and Collin's brother and sister-in-law Chet & Abby. We all then went to the Mountain Meadows Massacre Monument. There was a little bit of a tiny hike to see some of the things for it, but luckily for me there things to stop and look at before you got there that made it easier for a pregnant lady. After that we went to Collin's cousin's house for a BBQ with his family. It was SO good! That night we drove back home.

It was so fun being there with Collin's whole family. We really love getting together with everyone and wish it could happen more often! We love them all and are grateful for the friendship and love we share with each of them

Waiting for Little Mermaid

At the Kid's Museum trying to make himself surrounded by a bubble

The whole Cragun Fam

Part of the Mountain Meadows Massacre Monument

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