House Hunters

One of Derek's favorite channels is HGTV and one of his favorite shows is House Hunters. We both enjoy seeing what is out there in the housing market, even though we're not actually shopping for a home. We still love our place -- we've only been in it about a year and a half. Still its fun to look, hence my excitement over the annual Parade of Homes.
This year my Mom, Dad, Karen, Mike and Kate came to St. George for the event. Unfortunately Derek was still sick and didn't end up coming along, but I filled him in on some of the most extravagant homes -- like the one with a full basketball court, full raquetball court, climbing wall, and two-level gym in the BASEMENT! It was incredible! By far the most elaborate house, coming in at a measly 15,000 square feet. Can you imagine?!
We had great day trapsing in and out of luxury we will never afford, but at the end of the day I was happy to go home to our cozy abode :)

Our new home! Just kidding.

A romantic hideaway off of the main swimming pool.

Karen by the pool at the big house.

The picture is not great, but this is the stairs leading to the basketball court in the basement.

Another house had a kids area with pretend stables.

Happy Valentine's Day!

We had a pretty low key Valentine's this year, mostly because Derek wasn't feeling well. But we still celebrated a little bit. On Friday I decorated Derek's classroom door with a big valentine that said "Mrs. Larson Loves Mr. Larson" and 22 little valentines with candy for his students. He said the kids thought it was great.
Derek sent flowers to me at the office on Friday which was really sweet.

On Saturday we both had full days with Derek helping some people in our ward move, working a little at Cameo and at his school and I filled my time with typical Saturday chores and writing a speech for my master's class. That night we had a nice dinner at home. All in all, a pleasant holiday.

Derek's classroom door, courtesy of me :)

My husband is so sweet!

Spreading the news

We took some time getting the word out on our happy news, partly because we wanted to make sure everything was OK with the baby before we went public.
We had a scare two days before Christmas when I started bleeding and we had to rush to have emergency blood work done to make sure we hadn't lost the baby. This blood draw was followed by a second draw 48 hours later -- on Christmas day. Luckily we were able to go to the hospital in Cedar City where we were spending the holidays with my family. Because of all that, and the fact that I wasn't allowed to go skiing, we knew everyone would be suspicious. We told my family on Christmas day by giving our cute niece, Kate, a picture frame that said "Cousins" and a note that said "Baby Larson picture available August 2009." Everyone was so wonderfully excited and supportive. It made even the nerve-wracking time of waiting for the blood results something special. In the end, after an early ultra sound, we received the welcome news that the heartbeat looked strong and everything was fine.

Our niece, Kate Marie Sharp. Isn't she so sweet?!

After swearing my family to the utmost secrecy (thanks for complying!) we waited to tell Derek's parents when we were a little farther along so they wouldn't have to try to keep the secret too.

We let the cat out of the bag on Diana's birthday (Derek's mom) with a custom made onesie that said, "Baby Blockbuster Coming Summer 2009" and another one that said "I love my Grandma" on the front and "And Grandpa too" on the back. After asking over and over if this was an announcement and Derek and I assuring them that it was, everyone was really excited, in fact Derek's grandma, Noma, went right home and tied us a baby blanket the next day. It was really sweet!

Diana Larson with what she called her "favorite birthday present"

Derek pretending to be a baby in the onesie or something. Apparently the excitement of the evening was getting the best of him.

It's time

For some reason, I have been hesitant to throw my hat into the blogging ring. I think I worry that it will take too much time and frankly after sitting at a computer all day at work the last thing I want to do at home is sit at my computer. I know my sister's answer to this is to blog while at work, but I don't have the luxury of a private office, so that's out.
My line has always been "well, when we have kids, we'll get a blog" since that seems to be what many people do. Well folks -- I started a blog, so you can guess what that means... we're having a baby too!!!

Yes, we are THRILLED to announce we will be expanding our little family in August 2009. The official due date so far is Aug. 8. We've been slowly letting the word get out. I started by telling Derek (of course!) on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. I bought a copy of "What To Expect When You're Expecting" and the Willow Tree statue (I collect these) called "New Dad." I put them in separate gift bags and told him to pick one, but that they were both kind of for both of us. He picked the book and I believe the first words out of his mouth were: Are you serious? We were both excited, and understandably nervous. Below are some pictures of that evening's celebration complete with sparkling cider.