sleigh bells ring....

The snow is really coming down today, and Christmas is creeping closer and closer! I'M SO EXCITED!!!! Eric and I can't wait to give each other our fabulous gifts. So much for a budget this year! Oh well. Eric skipped out on walking at graduation to finish setting up house in American Falls. I love our two-foot Christmas tree! It makes our home so cozy :)

Home, sweet home :) We love it here.
We're also getting more and more finished on the cabin in time for New Year's Eve!The kitchen is about finished, and we've got the family room furnished.

Eric has been back to work at the irrigation district while I've been a kindergarten teacher sub all last week. We've also enjoyed being so close to Burley for frequent holiday visits!!

Earp has been doing just peachy. Clarification: We've been calling the baby Earp - pronounced 'erp' - for a couple months now. I felt bad calling him an "it" before we knew the gender. No, he will not be named Earp (or Wyatt) after he's born. Yes, we do have a name. No, we won't tell you yet :) BUT he will not be named Facundo, much to Eric's dismay.

Here I am at 24 weeks, and feeling great!! My only complaints now are eternal fatigue, leg cramps, and nausea only from garlic smells. weird. I'll be 25 weeks on Christmas! yeeeah! That makes him about 13.5 inches long head to heel, and he probably weighs 1.5 pounds. Earp's still quite the shaker and a mover....just wiggly as ever! Its amazing to realize how much we already love this little guy! God bless and Merry Christmas from the three of us!

The Stocking Saga

It's been a few weeks since I've posted, so here's a quick update of our recent happenings:

• Big move back to AF, ID = no more working at IHOP. I'll be substitute teacher in AF for the next few months.
• We spent wonderful, fun-filled quality time with our families in Burley, American Falls, Kimberly, and Pleasant Grove for Turkey Day.
• We went to The Blindside, and Eric and I fell in love with Sandra Bullock yet again :)
• I baked the mostest amazing apple dumplings ever to Thanksgiving at Tara and Sterling's. Then we stuffed ourselves silly.
• We ladies did the Black Friday thing at the University Mall. There were some killer deals, but the place was a zoo!
• We decorated for Christmas, and on Tuesday night I was able to sing with my mom and sisters in Burley for a Christmas Fireside. Good times :)
• We spanked the Cougars at the Spectrum on Wednesday night....WE LOVE AGGIE BASKETBALL!!!!!
• Lastly, Eric has just one more final until he is an offical college graduate!

So I was an absolute GENIUS and took NO pictures of any of it, but I have documented the Christmas Stocking Saga which I will share now. So, I get married, right? He was raised one way for 23 years....I was raised another way for 19 before the hitchment. Now, we're going to have our own offspring. How easy is it to combine the traditions and expectations of two people as bull-headed as we are????? NOT VERY. The Christmas stocking saga has been an ordeal, but I'm glad I can laugh about it due to my own genius. In our house, we grew up with these home-made, cute-as-a-button stockings:

Dad, Mom, Samuel, Me (Beka), Eliza, Abigail, Kelsey, Madisen, and Maxwell

My Grandma Rodabough made stockings like this for her family years ago. Now we, along with most of my Rodabough cousins, have these cute, felt and yarn, doll-ish mini-me stockings. FUN, huh!! Not so, says Eric. Strange, even creepy, says he. Have these stockings in our home? Over his dead body. He's a manly tough guy and refuses to be made into a "doll." I had always planned on making our family stockings like this. What kind of stockings does Eric want? The usual plush, red and and white ones. blah. Well, I'm done having a cow and spent much of Thanksgiving break working on what will be the new-and-improved Sorensen family Christmas stockings. No plushness, but no creepy little doll people either. They're felt, elf-toed, and will have jingle bells and cute holiday scenes on them. I'll post when they're finished.

HOWEVER don't be fooled by my compromise. I do not give in that easily. This year we'll spend Christmas in Burley with my fam. So while Eric went back to Logan for class last Monday, I stayed in Burley to practice our songs and make THIS:

Sorry Eric. I hope you don't have nightmares. But since you married me, you DO have to have a mini-you stocking. Hopefully he doesn't see the blog before we go to Burley, because I want to see him come face-to-face with my little masterpiece. Kudos to me...I'm totally diggin the Aggie hat ;)

p.s. Sam and Megan aren't getting married until May, but I couldn't help myself!! Sorry Megan, you get to be bald until you're officially married to my brother. That's part of the initiation process. :) Actually, we're still trying to find the right hair-color for her.

>> Break out the BLUE <<

...because Baby Sorensen is a BOY!!!!!! WooHOOOOOO!!! We are so SO SO excited. For so long I had felt the baby was a boy deep down, so my heart was kind of set on it being a little guy. If it was a girl, I think I would have been surprised to death. So, Eric's pretty pumped, if I may say so myself!! The ultrasound went smoothly, and the baby was not shy at all....ALL boy and no doubt about it. He sure is a busy-body for an eleven inch babe. The ultrasound tech would be looking for his heart or spine, and the little guy would not hold still to get a good picture! I have a feeling that this one is going to keep us on our toes ;) We did purchase the baby's first outfit today. Appropriate for the spawn of Eric? I think so!! So April 8, 2010 is still the magical date. I like the 3D mugshots....you can see his little face!! We're HALFWAY there. Hallelujah!

Alrighty folks....it's poll time: boy or girl?

The 20 week ultrasound is going to be Tuesday, November 17. That gives us only FOUR days to play the gender game. The suspense is killing me!!! Eric is still hoping for a boy. I was so sure it was going to be a little guy, but now I'm straddling the line until we know for sure. I sure am curious to know what you folks think. Some folks pride themselves in being excellent guessers, so take a stroll over to the poll ---->>> And we'll see on Tuesday! :)

JAZZ it up!!

For Eric's 25th birthday, I promised him tickets to any Utah Jazz game. I'd never been to any NBA game, so the gift was win-win. We went to the Utah vs. San Antonio game last Thursday and had a fantastic day in SLC.
We hadn't visited Temple Square since we got hitched, so we took a long walk around the grounds.

18 weeks along....
Salt Lake is gorgeous in the fall....especially the temple grounds. We walking over to the Gateway for shrimp dinner at McGrath's and window shopping. p.s. I am having a love-hate relationship with clothes right now. I looked and looked, but anything I thought was worth buying would only fit me for another couple weeks. But THANK GOODNESS for sweet sisters-in-law with maternity clothes to lend. Hello elastic waist pants!!
The game was a lot of fun....especially for my first live NBA experience!
Perks of the game: Boozer actually came alive and played well, I LOVE the Jazz, I hate the Spurs, we kicked the Spurs' tushies, I didn't have annoying college kids standing in front of me the whole game, Deron Williams rocks my socks, it is hilarious to listen to elderly fans get worked up, and I had a saucy husband by my side.

Happy Birthday, hubs!! and woot WOOT!! Way to go Jazz......now don't disappoint us for the rest of the season, pretty please!

happy november

We went to Rexburg for Halloween night to watch Holly's Halloween performance with the BYU-I Symphony Orchestra. It was a SUPERHERO themed performance and a lot of fun!!
After the performance we took the boys trick-or-treating :)

Then Sunday was Kaidence's baby blessing in Kimberly. She is such a sweet baby!

Happy November!

Halloweeners.

Witches sailing through the sky...on their broomsticks way up high...black cats howl as they go by...Oh! This is HALLOWEEN!!!

I absolutely LOVE October! Eric and I have been busy with normal life + the cabin + family + Halloween festivities. While Eric was a party-pooper, I went with my family to Grandma Rodabough's in Woods Cross to dress up and have a ghoulishly delightful time. Usually, I dress up as something edgy or seductively frighting, but I couldn't fit into my black dress! As a plus, I was sick and felt like the walking dead, so natually, I was a ghost in the super duper comfortable gown.
Here is my family (minus Dad who came later, plus Liza's friends). We ate our hearts out, had costume contests, chatted, played games, and watched Hocus Pocus! Meanwhile, Eric was at the cabin with his parents installing the floor in the main room. We saw it last weekend, and it's awesome! The cabin is really coming along.
Eric and I went to Logan's Pumpkin Walk yesterday...FUN stuff!! Pumpkins are painted and set up in incredible scenes. Too bad we missed it last year, and this is our last fall in Logan.

Look at this garden, and yes, they are all painted pumpkins. a.dor.a.ble.

I thought this pumpkin-faced witch was great! I'll get you, my pretty....

So we came home, made carmel apples, and carved our OWN pumpkins! Eric's is the spooky face and mine is the ghost! BOO!
p.s. If you haven't seen Tim Burton's "Coraline," DO!! It's my new favorite movie :D