Easter

This is a few weeks late but I had to post about our fun Easter with the fam.  It was so much fun spending time with Nick's parents and brother's family up in Seattle.  Kevin and Nanci have such a cute family!  It makes me so excited to have our little one and more!

Easter was such a beautiful day to celebrate our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!  I am so grateful for his sacrifice so that I can be made clean through his atoning sacrifice.

After we got home from church on Easter we snapped a few cute pictures and then Nick and I hid the 200+ eggs all over the backyard.

After our delicious Easter dinner (lamb with mint jelly, potatoes, rolls, asparagus, salad) the kids began the hunt.  Kevin and Nanci's youngest was not interested in finding eggs at all.  He just wanted to play with all of grandma's toys!  Grandma had us hide 4 gold and silver eggs really hard and each had a dollar in them.  The kids tried really hard to find them and were so excited when they got one.  As you can see from the pictures Brooks was really proud of himself for getting a golden egg (he is holding it up, showing it off). 

After the egg hunt and some yummy dessert we all goofed off in the living room as Grandpa Dueck entertained us with his musical talent on the organ and accordion!  It reminded me of when I was a kid and my siblings and I would dance around in our living room to one of us playing the piano or just a CD.  Joseph was fascinated with Grandpa's instruments!  Probably because they both had a billion buttons.  (I messed around on the organ a little bit too and actually found it quite fascinating!  I could only press the foot peddles with my toes though #shortpeopleprobems.  After I have the baby and I'm not working anymore and dedicate more time to learning the hymns I might try picking up the organ!)

The boys love Nick and always want to talk to him about the video game "Final Fantasy". (Sometimes they even call him to ask him how to get past a certain part!)

Is this just so cute!

This is Nick's old accordion from when he learned to play (he doesn't play anymore, but I'm thinking he should start up again!  It is such a beautiful sounding instrument and you can play so many varieties of music).  James got pretty interested and is going to start taking lessons from Grandpa!

And here is Mae!  She has gotten really into gymnastics within the last month and taught herself from watching YouTube videos (she said a good search is "eight year old doing gymnastics").  She made this routine up all on her own!  She asked me for some cool new moves so I told her about one that I did when I took gymnastics back in the day.  It's a backward somersault to a handstand.  She can almost do it but she said she would "master it" and show it to me at our family reunion in July.  She is such a cute girl and I think it is awesome that she learned it all on her own!

Pike's Place Market

For Easter weekend we took a trip up to Washington to visit Nick's family.  It is always so much fun to be with family whether we are playing, discovering new places, eating, or just having great chats.  I am so grateful to have married into such a great family where I feel right at home!

Our first day there we first renewed Nick's license and the rest of the day we got to chill with Nick's dad.  We ran some errands and picked up some delicious beef jerky from a  local butcher.  Nick was really excited about that (he loves meat!).  We then took a drive through the country side.  Washington is truly beautiful with the green grass and trees, lush mountains, and sparkling blue water.  When we got back Nick's mom and I went to the outlet mall to shop for baby things!  We went for the purpose of getting a gift for Nick's friend since childhood (Austin) a baby gift but we found such a great deals that Cathy insisted we get a few things for my baby too.  She is so sweet!  We all then met up with Nick's brother and his wife (Kevin and Nanci) who live in town and we all went to dinner at Nick's favorite restaurant here Mez Cal and had a fun time chatting there.

On Saturday it was so beautiful out!  It was like 70 degrees without a cloud in the sky!  Every time I have come to Seattle the weather has always been beautiful (not rainy everyday like everyone thinks).  Kevin and his family came with Nick's parents and us to Pike's Place Market in downtown Seattle.  It was pretty crowded but still fun and we got to see some interesting things/people.  Right when we got down there and were trying to park a person came up to us trying to get us to pay him for parking when you really just put your money in a machine.  Nick's dad knew right away that he was a scammer and didn't even roll down his window.  The guy went up to Kevin's car and Nick's dad yelled across the lot "he's a scammer!"  The guy then backed away and even left the lot.  

Nick's family introduced me to piroshkys four years ago when I first came out to visit them.  The best ones are the smoked salmon piroshkys!  It is a pastry filled with ground up salmon, cream cheese, and spices and is so freakin good!  We had to wait in line for over 30 minutes to get some but it was worth it! I am going to try to replicate them.  They also make dessert ones and Nick and I got the apple cinnamon roll which was also pretty good.

Raw Salmon Piroshky 

All the various yummy pastires

Nick on his 2nd salmon piroshky

It was a great lunch!

Close up of the delciousness

It's in the shape of a fish!

Us in the crowded Pike's Place Market

Those lobster tails are huge!!!

Here is a fun video of fish throwing!

So many beautiful flowers!

It was a perfect day!

The water is sparkling!

Nick will be getting his MD at...

Back in October Nick got accepted to Creighton University Medical School located in Omaha, Nebraska and we have made the final decision to go there for his MD.  Creighton is a Jesuit school founded in 1878.  It has just under 8,000 students in undergrad programs as well as dental, law, nursing, pharmacy, and of course medical school!  The mascot is Billy Bluejay so our (well Nick's) school colors will still be blue and white.  Nick is very eager to begin his medical school education and will be starting just 4 months from today!

Center of Campus

I'm excited that Nick will be attending yet another university with great values!  Here is a quote from their website:
"The principles of a Jesuit education, as defined by St. Ignatius of Loyola, have endured at Creighton: Change the world in Christ’s image. Study humankind. Transform yourself and your community. Seek truth in all you do. Go forth and set the world on fire."

Here is a map of the US so you can see where Omaha, Nebraska is located.  Yep!  It's right there in the middle.  It is right on the border of of Nebraska and Iowa.  It is a little under 14 hours away from Provo, UT so our move won't be too bad but we'll definitly take it in two days with a 1 1/2 month old baby.  It is also just 6 hours from my home town St. Louis, MO!  

Lots of trees and green grass!!! Oh how I have missed you in this brown Utah dessert!

Here are some facts about Omaha:

• Largest city in Nebraska
• First populated by Native Americans and then European Americans established the city
• 42nd largest city in the US
• Inventions from Omaha: TV dinner, Raisin Bran, cake mix (awesome), Butter Brickel Ice cream, Reuben sandwich, center-pivot irrigation (not sure what that is but probably important to growing all of our food), bobby pin (up-do's!), ski-lift (I don't think they have skiing though)
• Rated 8th in USA Today's largest cities in per-capita billionaires and Fortune 500 companies
• Warren Buttett (richest in the world) is from here
• Humid summer (July average is 76.7 F - not bad!), dry winters (January average is 23.5 F)
• Frequent thunderstorms (I love thunderstorms and miss the ones in St. Louis so I'm excited!)
• Sometimes tornadoes (not so good)
• Average percipitation: 30.6 in, average snow: 28.7 inches
• 408,958 people (2010 census)
• 68% non-Hispanic white, 13.7% African American, 13.1% Hispanic, and I'm not gonna put the others

We are so excited to spend the next 4 years in Omaha beginning at the end of July.  We will miss being so close to family but are excited for the new adventure and look forward to making close friends there.

3 Months Left!

I am now in my 3rd trimester! Only 3 months left (well until my due date).  Time is starting to go by so fast!  Well, sometimes it seems like I've been pregnant forever (and it will probably really feel like that more towards the end).  Here are some pictures from the last few weeks so you can see my belly growth:

 25 weeks

26 weeks

27 weeks

Everyone who said the second trimester is the best was right!  I wasn't nauseous at all, I had a bit more energy (unfortunately not enough to wake up early enough to exercise everyday), and I wasn't uncomfortably large yet.  The good days starting to come to an end though!  My ribs and back are starting to hurt a bit and bending over to put my socks and shoes on is not as easy.  It is even uncomfortable sitting with bad posture.  I think baby is not only getting bigger but migrating up my chest cavity!  It is pretty amazing/interesting to see my body changing.  I never imagined my stomach ever popping out so far!  I find it hard to believe that my muscles and ligaments will shrink back down but I know it will.  The human body is truly magnificent!

I am starting to feel our little girl pushing and kicking a lot and I absolutely love it!  Sometimes when I start to feel her moving I just stop what I'm doing and stare down at my belly to watch her.  I can't wait til she comes so I can see her kicking and moving her hands in the air.  It is amazing how much love I already feel for her!  I am so excited to see her in her daddy's arms too!  Nick is going to be such a good father.  It is pretty cute how protective he already is of her.

Well we are starting to collect a bunch of baby stuff.  A few months ago I posted that Nick's friend at work gave us a car seat and just the other week they gave us a pack-n-play!  We are so grateful for their generosity!  I made sure that I was able to figure out how to set it up and I did it.  I struggled a bit at first because I've never set one up but it is actually quite easy!  This will be our little girl's bed for the first few months before we move to where ever we're going for Nick's medical school.  We only have one room so baby will be sleeping right next to me in this.  This pack-n-play will be super nice because as you can see from the picture it doubles as a bassinet so I don't have to bend all the way over to reach her.

Nick's sister who has 4 girls gave us bags and bags of baby clothes and other random baby things and said she still has more for us!  I am so grateful to have such loving and generous friends and family!

Daily Life

I've become a little better at posting on the blog since I got pregnant but it's just been about baby so this post is to document what Nick and I do when we aren't preping for baby.

Both Nick and I are working full time.  Nick works at a company called Property Solutions (they provide software for apartment complexes) where he is the QA and Workforce Specialist.  They keep him pretty busy there but he enjoys it. In the one year he's worked there he has gotten promotions and raises so it has been a blessing to our family. I work at a company called DishOne (they sell dishnetwork and directv).  I take calls from customers, sales representatives, and technicians.  This is not my ideal job (I'll post about that later) but I'll only be working 3 more months!  The great thing about our jobs is that we work at the same time 8-5 and 9-5 so we have the whole evening together and since we aren't in school we get to do whatever we want when we get home!  It is pretty awesome.  We also both have the same days off: Sunday and Monday.

What do we do besides work?  Well Nick has really gotten into working out.  He wakes up early every morning to lift weights before work.  It's kind of funny because the first few years of marriage I begged him to workout with me running and finally when he is dedicated I am totally not.  I blame that on 1st trimester nausea and now the snow/ice that will never melt!  A year and a half of marriage added 50lbs to him (I make good food!) and he has lost it all and has more muscle now than he ever has.  I am super proud of him and his self-discipline (and he looks HOT!)!  I feel like I have gotten so out of shape.  Not that I've packed on the pounds but I have lost a lot of my muscle strength (used to run 20+ miles/week and now it's 0).  Now that I'm in my second trimester and have more energy I've started to workout again but way less.  I ride a seated stationary bike for 30 minutes, do some squats/lunges, and lift some weights.  It's always hard to get going but I feel so energized after.  Once I recover from delivering baby I am going to do the Insanity workouts.  I also hope to get a jogging stroller and do another half marathon (maybe Nick will join me for this one!).  I am super excited!

Since we have our evenings free we have taken up hobbies.  Nick love, love, loves to learn so he has been reviewing and learning computer languages (I think he knows like 5 now).  He has made a few template websites for me that are pretty legit, as well as one for his work that they are going to use when hiring new employees.  He is trying to make some software that can be used at his work in his department so maybe his hobby will also make us a little extra doe!  He convinced me to take up this hobby too so I have been learning HTML and CSS and creating my own website.  It took me while to get into it but I'm starting to like it!  Nick has helped me by creating some website designs which I then I have to practice my skills and replicate it.  It's fun to have Nick teach me and see him get so excited.  I've also been cooking and trying new recipes.  I'm trying to improve my food photography as well.  I've learned that natural light does wonders but usually by the time dinner is done at 6 the sun has already gone down (can summer come sooner?).  I have also done some crafts (sewing, jewelry making...).  I would do even more crafts if I had a craft room or craft table where I could leave out my stuff and not have to clean it up each night.  Oh, to live in a place larger than 500sq ft!

At church Nick and I began our new calling back in December as the Singing Time choristers in Primary.  Nick is pretty good at singing but I am just a shower singer.  It's been fun though!  The kids are super cute and know the songs, doctrine, and scriptures stories so well.  Last month Nick taught them "I am a Child of God" which they already know pretty well but there is a 4th verse that they didn't know!  They were really excited about that.  He also taught the senior primary the high accompany part for the 3rd verse and they have really enjoyed that. We think they really like it because it is somewhat challenging.  When teaching/practicing it I sang the regular part with half the class while Nick sang the accompaniment with the other half. We would switch and I would sing the regular part again but with the other half of the kids.  One girl asked "Why does Sister Dueck have to sing the boring part all the time?"  hahaha!  It's because I'm not as good as Nick at singing and I have a hard time reaching the high notes.  I have no problem singing the "boring part".  hahaha!  It was really cute that she was concerned that I didn't get to join in on the fun new part.  The other week we had the kids pull a song title out of a jar and then how we were going to sing it from another one.  One of the combos was the 1st Article of Faith (a slow, kind of medieval sounding song) and the how was doing the hula.  It was pretty awkward/funny and a little girl in Sunbeams said "This is a pretty cool dance move!"  Kids say the darnedest things!

What's in our future?  Well, of course baby girl Dueck!  Besides baby, Nick will be starting medical school at the end of summer.  We just haven't made a definite decision yet.  As of now we've decided to go to Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska.  We are still waiting to hear from University of Washington in Seattle.  They have sent Nick three e-mails now that say that he is still "under consideration" which means he isn't accepted, rejected, or wait listed.  I just hope that by April they have made a definite decision so we can start planning where we are going to be living.  We will be happy going to either school but UW is in the top 10 ranked med schools and it's by Nick's family and in the same part of the country as mine.  Creighton is a good school too and I have only heard good things about the area (and I'm a midwest girl).  I must say though that I have looked up apartments in Omaha and we could get a really nice one for pretty cheap.  I fear that if we go to Seattle we will be living in worse conditions than we are now and for a high price.  We'll see.  I'm just excited for a change... especially to have a second bedroom for baby and our first kitchen table!

Halfway!!!

I'm 20 weeks!  And I finally have a little baby bump!  At the end of my 18th week I started to pop out a bit to the point of where buttoning my pants was pretty uncomfortable and now impossible.  I manager to still wear my normal pants by looping a hair elastic through the button hole and around the button.  No one can see it because my shirts are long enough to cover it.  Nick was pretty impressed with this creativity but I must give the credit to pinterest. haha!

(Sorry the picture isn't great.  We have a tiny apartment that doesn't have good lighting.)

The last two nights have not been good. I have woken up multiple times to go to the bathroom and at around 3 I can't fall back asleep because my stomach is empty and growling.  I try to shake it off because I just want to sleep but I end up getting up eventually and making a piece of toast or a bowl of cereal.  I then go back to the bed but still can't fall asleep because I start thinking about random things. I also feel like the baby is doing most of her growing at night and I can feel the expanding pressure inside.  Maybe my body is getting me ready for the sleepless nights ahead.

My sweet tooth is back unfortunately.   I made delicious peanut butter blossom cookies and ate about 3 a day.  Baby and I love them!  Nick does too but he has more self-control.  After all the cookies were eaten I made cream puffs, ginger snaps, and I'm thinking of making German chocolate brownies next!

Tuesday I had my 20 week ultra sound.  We were able to see so much detail: her heart (all 4 chambers), arteries, kidneys, stomach, diaphragm, umbilical cord, brain, spine, nose, lips...  When we were looking at her face she had both hands up by her eyes like playing peek-a-boo (precious).  The ultra sound tech took measurements of everything and she is measuring on track for my June 9th due date.  She weighs about 13.5 ounces.  It was fun to get to look at her for longer and see that she is healthy and growing .  The tech only printed 5 pictures (evenly though she took like 20+) and they weren't my favorite ones but these will have to do:

(That dark spot in her chest is the heart and that white part coming out of her stomach is the umbilical cord.)

(This is looking between her legs at her bottom.  It's a girl! If you look hard you can see her femur bones.)

(I think this is her right foot)

Well I'm off to get some ice cream!  :)

Pregnancy Update

Last week I didn't sleep well because I kept feeling stretching. I think our little girl is going through a little growth spurt! I sort of have a baby bump but it just looks like I'm bloated or had one too many treats during the holidays (which is not true because sweets still made me feel a little nauseous.  Sadly I didn't make caramels or sugar cookies for Christmas but I'm for sure making sugar cookies for Valentine's Day!)  Anyway it is a weird stage that I am excited to pass and enter into the cute round belly stage.

18 weeks (Not much of a bump yet. Sorry.)

The new pregnancy symptom I'm having is getting hungry in the middle of the night.  I of course wake up in the middle of the night to use the restroom (I'm used to that now) but then I have a hard time falling back asleep because my tummy is growling.  Last night I had this problem for the second time so at 3am I was on the couch eating a small bowl of Frosted Mini Wheats.  I think it's weird.  I have never known anyone to do this.  I have only seen this in movies (What a Girl Wants is the one the comes to mind).  Anyway, I think I'll start eating a snack a few hours before bed to try to prevent this strange activity.

I went to the doctor last Thursday, well the doctor's office (didn't end up seeing the doctor because he was at the hospital doing surgery). Honestly I don't think an appointment every 4 weeks is necessary. I did get to hear our girl's heartbeat again though. I love getting to hear her fast little heartbeat! It assures me that she is in there and is healthy. The nurse checked my weight and blood pressure and I am in good shape too. :) I'm really excited for the 20 week ultra sound in a week and a half! It's always so fun to see her growing, developing, and moving inside me!

It is so amazing and such a miracle that this little girl is growing inside of me! All my life when people have asked what I want to be when I grow up I've always said "I want to be a mom" (My calling is in the primary and on Sunday we filled out questionnaires with the kids that asked what we want to be when we grow up and I found myself putting the same thing... which I will be and forever be starting in June!  haha!)  What a wonderful gift God has given us to have the power to create life! I am so grateful for this child that God has given to Nick and I!

Oh, and why don't groceries stores have pregnancy parking.  I know I'm not that pregnant yet but I'm just saying it might be a good idea especially in the winter when there is snow and ice on the ground.