It's a GIRL!!!

So our families already know, but for anyone else who may be interested we just found out that we are having a baby girl. We had the ultrasound the day before Thanksgiving which was perfect timing. I am so amazed by all they could see with an ultrasound. It makes me thankful for modern day technology that helps to detect problems while the baby is still in the womb. The technician who was running our ultrasound was getting quite frustrated because our baby would not stay still. I thought for sure that was were going to be having a boy, and a wild one at that, but no, we are having a girl that will probably keep us on our toes as well. According to our doctor everything is looking good so far, but she will take another ultrasound in 6 weeks. We have been really blessed to have gotten in with our current doctor. I had initially been visiting with her at the Ohio State "High Risk Pregnancy" facility due to our previous complications, and once she found out we were expecting she decided just to keep us as patients although everything seemed to be looking good. She has been very thorough and helpful at resolving concerns. This whole experience is pretty surreal, but we are very excited and feel so blessed. I had to post these fun pictures. I hope you can tell what they are. There is a profile shot, a picture of her arm and hand as well as her leg and foot. It's amazing!

18 months and counting!

So yesterday morning I woke up like any other day and started to get ready when my husband presented me with an 18 month anniversary present. He has started out the Christmas season by giving me my new Christmas ornament. It's pretty sad when the husband is the one remembering all of the anniversaries, but he is wonderful at it. I can't believe that it has only been a year and a half since we have been married. In some ways time has gone by quickly, but it's amazing to see how much has happened in such a short amount of time. I just feel so lucky and blessed for all of the experiences that we have had so far. We definetly have our good and bad moments like everyone else, but I am happy that I can share them with Mike. He really helps to bring out the best in others and I truly appreciate his great example to me. I can't wait for him to be a Dad!! Woo Hoo, our kids are going to be sooo lucky. :) O.K. I think I have probably embarassed him enough to last for awhile.

So Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!!! We are sad not to be able to be home for the holidays, but we are being blessed and watched over. A sister from Mikes mission invited us up to Michigan for Thanksgiving. It will be nice to spend some time with them. I am also gearing up for Christmas. I think I had all of my presents bought last year by Thanksgiving because I just couldn't wait. I am looking forward to putting out Christmas decorations, watching "White Christmas" and listening to "The Messiah". Fun, Fun, Fun. Although we won't be home for Christmas we are going to make the most of this time together and it should be nice. Well, Happy Holidays from us.

Go Cavs!!!

We had a really fun evening last night. Mike had wanted to go to the Utah Jazz game vs. the Cleveland Cavaliers since it would be our only opportunity to see the Jazz this season. We weren't sure if we could afford tickets until Mike found them for an awesome deal, $4.00. We couldn't pass it up and so we took a road trip to Cleavland. It was so nice to be able to get out and do something different. It's probably a bad sign if I am stir crazy already, just wait until the baby comes.:) There was a really nice mall right next to the arena and so we were able to park there and have dinner. There were at least 4 Chinese restaurants in the food court there, and they were all competing for our business. They had employees out giving away food samples like used car salesmen. We probably could have filled up on samples.

I love the holidays when all of the shopping centers are decorated, it really helps to get you into the holiday spirit.




I wanted Mike to write this post because he has a lot more to say about the game, but all in all it was a pretty embarrassing 4th quarter. It was a lot of fun to be there, but we were pretty outnumbered in our cheering section. By the end of the game I felt like we should have been cheering for the Cavs as well, but I guess we will stick with the Jazz. We had a good time, and hopefully we'll get a chance to go and see the Celtics play in Cleavland as well.

Supportive Spouse

Well there hasn't been a whole lot going on in our neck of the woods this week. Yesterday was a fun day for us. Mike got done with school early and was kind enough to come to my class and entertain the kids. He does so well with kids and every child that he meets tends to just cling to him and make an automatic friend so I thought it would be great for him to come and read to my class. He only came for a little while. We sang silly songs and read stories. Most of the kids thought it was the greatest thing and they all wanted to sit on his lap. There was one boy who got a little scared though. I guess he thought Mike was a little scary.:) He didn't get to know him very well. That night we were able to go the temple and perform baptisms. It had been awhile for both of us and it was a special experience to do the work for some of Mike's family members. I am always pleasantly surprised by the sweet spirit that accompanies the baptismal fonts. It was a special time for us. We have the opportunity of working in the temple once a month doing laundry. The laundry facility is in the baptismal area and so we are always in the baptistry but never able to do baptisms so it was a nice change.

It is raining here which tends to make things seem a little gloomy and gray, but tonight Mike invited his "little brother" over to make some homemade ice cream and watch a movie. He is a great example to me and so sweet. I sure love him and think he is the best. So although it is a rainy day, he has made it a good one.:) We'll have to let you know how the ice cream turns out.

Happy Halloween!!!

It is funny how many people have asked Mike and I if we celebrate Halloween. I guess celebrate is a funny term, but Yes we enjoy the festivities of the Halloween holiday.:) For Family Night we got to carve our pumpkins. I remember while growing up I would ask my mom back in September when we could carve our pumpkins. It was my favorite part, besides dressing up and the candy of course. We always had to be patient though and wait until a few days before so our pumpkins "wouldn't go bad."
Last year we bought pumpkins and never got around to carving them so we had to show off the awesome finished products. We had to do the cat in honor of "Gracie Lou Hoo". It was fun and definitely a lot easier when you have a pumpkin carving kit. (I am a big fan) I guess in our county the kids will be going trick or treating on Thursday instead of on Friday. This makes it so the kids won't be out so late since they schedule it on a school night. I guess it makes sense, but seems a little odd to me at the same time. We are going to our friends the Gardner's for a Halloween party. We will be watching "Watcher in the Woods" and for those of you who know me well, you will know that the scariest movie I have ever seen and have previously refused to watch since, is Watcher in the Woods. I know, it's pretty tame, but I HATE!!!! scary movies, so I will hide my head in Mikes arm and enjoy the fun of being together with everyone. I'm sure I'll be fine. It has been nice to have other couples to do stuff with. It's nice since we are so far away from family.

For work last week we had a "Boo Bash" , basically a Halloween party for families. There were games, costumes, candy, etc. For months my co-workers have been asking me what I am dressing up as. Apparently they all take it very seriously and go and buy elaborate costumes. This was my perception anyway. I am pretty lame when it comes to costumes. I usually just find something in my closet and make it work. This year I wore my pajamas, a bathrobe, put my hair in curlers, and put a green mask on my face. I thought it was pretty lame, but since only 1 other person dressed up for the day at school, my costume was a hit. It was really funny to see all of the Dad's and their "double takes" of the crazy teacher in pajamas. "What was she thinking?" Luckily the other teachers finally got in costume by the party. So we have had a fun and eventful fall so far, and although we might not be able to go home for the holidays we are excited for those as well.

So I know this is silly to post a picture of my Prego body, but my sister Jackie wanted a month by month update of my growing belly. Since I always thought is was fun to see her getting HUGE, I guess I an afford her the same pleasure. So here ya go Jack. This is me at 15 weeks.

A Weekend in the Life of Mike

One of the nicest things I can do for my wife is to write on our blog. So since we had a fun weekend, I thought I would write a few words about it and surprise Amy. I'm imagining when she finds out she'll probably get a little teary eyed with excitement, then she'll probably want to hug and kiss me a lot.
It started with a Friday night excursion to our favorite pumpkin festival in Circleville. Circleville is only 30 minutes away according to locals, but it took us an hour to get there in the "everybody in Columbus is trying to get to the same little small town" traffic. We ended up going with some of our friends from our Ward, which was fun. The festival was a really good time besides the elbow to elbow people traffic that we had to shimmy our way through to get from place to place. There wasn't as much pumpkin stuff as I was expecting, but I was still able to try some pumpkin cake, pumpkin scone, pumpkin donuts, and even a pumpkin burger (which surprisingly didn't taste very good). They also had an enormous thousand pound pumpkin and the largest pumpkin pie probably in the world, but maybe just Circleville. Either way, it was larger than Amy's nephew's could probably eat, but maybe not.

Saturday morning was an amazing adventure in taking my little brother Mike to the zoo. Since my real little brother is serving a mission in Seattle I decided to get a new little brother by becoming a mentor with the Big Brother's Big Sister's program. So far it has been a lot of fun. I made the mistake yesterday, however, to let little Mike get a Volt soda pop. I'm not sure why I thought letting an already attention deficit seven year old drink a highly caffeinated and sweetened drink would be a good idea. He was all over the place, but the zoo was a good place for that. There is so much to look at that he could just bounce from one animal to the next. He wanted to look at every little thing as well, so even though he didn't want to look at anything for too long, we still didn't make it around even half the zoo. It was funny because he decided that he was going to be my zoo guide. Whenever we would go to see a new animal he would tell me what it was and other random information. For example "oh Michael! look here is a flat green snake, it is poisonous and can eat a whole kid, I mean man whole, it lives in Texas." He told me when we left that I should quit school and work at the zoo so that we could go all the time.
Saturday night we played some games with some of our other friends here in Columbus. We ate some Delicious soup compliments of Chef Amy, and played a couple of games. Of course I dominated! Today has been a really good Sunday. We are helping our primary kids practice for the primary program next week. Our primary presidency is pulling out all the stops, singing in different languages, chimes, sign language. It should be pretty fun. Well, this post is over. Now I just have to wait for the tearful hugs and kisses.

Introducting........Baby Sharp!!!!!

For those of you who were under the impression that we would be forever cat owners and never parents, we finally have some good news! We had our 2nd Ultrasound today and everything is going well with Baby Sharp #1 Yeah!!!!! We are currently 3 months along and counting. I am crossing my fingers and praying that everything will work out o.k. For those of you who know me well I am the biggest worrier! I guess I take after my mom in that respect. So although I worry and want everything to work out o.k. we are also really excited and hopeful. I feel really blessed that after a long wait I will hopefully get the opportunity to be a mother. Mike is going to be a wonderful father and I am so thankful that I have such a great companion to help me through everything that is to come. It's definitely a changing point in our lives. It's funny to think back to when I was younger. Everything seemed so easy and effortless back when I was naive and had no clue what to expect. Since being single for awhile and now being married, it will be an adjustment of my time for sure. It's amazing how selfish you get with your time when you don't have too many other responsibilities needing it. So, while I am obviously STILL naive, (of course you can never truly prepare yourself for something like this), I am excited and have a desire to share whatever time, means, etc. will be necessary for our growing family. We truly have been blessed.

P.S. We weren't able to get any fun pictures of the baby because the ultrasound machine wasn't working so stay tuned for official baby pictures in 6 weeks.