Phantom of the Opera!

Phantom at the Venetian
The Bellagio water show

Grandma and Grandpa Dickson

On our way home from Utah we stopped in Vegas for a few days to visit Devin's grandparents that live there. While we were there we celebrated Grandma Dickson's birthday and enjoyed dinner with them at PF Chang's. Another night Grandma bought Devin and I tickets to see Phantom of the Opera at the Venetian. It was a great musical and my favorite Vegas show yet! Thanks Grandma, you sure did spoil us!

Utah to visit Devon + Whitney

I love the picture of my brother below. We had just finished watching the movie Australia and were soooo tired. Gotta love those "cheeky bulls" and "ms. boss"!

We finally made it to Utah to visit my brother Devon and his awesome wife Whitney. We were supposed to go up there for a family vacation right after Christmas but couldn't make it because of my crazy morning sickness. They live in a super cute duplex in Provo and we had a lot of fun hanging out with them for a few days. The Devin/ons went snowboarding, we did some shopping, and my favorite was when we ate at the brazilian steakhouse Tucano's. Thanks you guys for letting us party with you! We also got to see a few Hawaii friends; Jared, who's living in Provo now, and Dan, Jonna, and baby Brighton who were visiting family in Bountiful.

SeaWorld

A couple weeks ago we went to SeaWorld with my sister-in-law Dawn and Natalie and each of their 3 kids. Devin's mom and sister, Chanel, were there too and it was so cute to watch the our nieces and nephews have so much fun. We were so exhausted by the end of the day!

My childhood SeaWorld memory-

When I was about 6 years old at SeaWorld with my family I was eating a churro and a seagull swooped down, clawed my face (leaving a scratch), and stole my churro from me. I started crying and some people crowded around me, including my parents, asking if I was okay. I cried, but only because I wanted another churro!

Getting Adjusted!

A few weeks ago we went to play some games with Janae and Taylor at Taylor's parents house. We had a ton of fun! (Janae you'll have to help me out with the names of the games because I can't remember what they're called) I think one was a version of murder in the dark and the other may have been called "who sir, me sir?" We enjoyed hanging out with the Holland family and learned that Taylor's dad is a chiropractor. He offered to adjust me for my FIRST time! It was the coolest thing ever! My hips usually hurt from sleeping on my sides and they felt relief for a good week! He also adjusted my neck and it relieved me of a headache. I love my dad, but I sure do wish he could have been a chiropractor. Thanks John, you crack me up! (pun intended)

Friends Visit + Baby Update

Our friends Dan and Jonna from Hawaii are visiting the mainland along with their cute baby girl Brighton. Brighton was born about 2 weeks after we moved to the mainland so I thought I would never get to see her! I was so excited when I got a call from Jonna saying they were coming to the LA area for a few days!!! Yesterday we met up with them at Pedro's Tacos in San Clemente. We went to the rip curl outlet for some shopping and then Devin and Dan surfed T-Street. Brighton was such a good baby....the cutest thing was Brighton smiling for me. Jonna told me the trick was to talk in a really high voice and it worked within seconds. She had the most cute chubby cheeks and she really liked Devin, so naturally he loved her! We were so stoked to see Dan, Jonna, and Brighton and hope that they, along with all of our other Hawaii friends, (you know who you are) move to southern California someday!

Baby Update:

I began the 24th week of my pregnancy today.

The last week and a half I feel like my energy level is back and I am finally feeling normal, well almost.

My belly has been growing at a rapid pace! I'll have to post some belly shots soon!

The name we are thinking about is Maddox. We aren't for sure though.

He has been judo chopping me in the stomach like crazy lately.

My sister-in-law Natalie set a date for my baby shower...May 30th!

Just to remind everyone, the baby is due on my birthday June 29th.

Family Beach Day!

This weekend my brother Devon and his wife Whitney were in town for a wedding so we got to spend the weekend with them. On Friday night we had family come over to celebrate Whitney's birthday. On Saturday we spent the day at the beach. The boys did some rock climbing at Corona Del Mar and everyone played some volleyball. Then we went to Balboa beach and rented beach cruisers to ride on the bike path. Then we ate at BJ's pizza for dinner and finished the night playing games at my parents house with some of the cousins. It was fun to be with the family! The only thing that could have made it better was if my little brother Cameron, who's in Argentina serving a mission, was there! We definitely missed him!

Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day was perfect. Devin is a sweetheart and he took me to my favorite restaurant Zov's! Dinner was delicious and they have the most decadent desserts! If you haven't been there you need to try it!

The Dance

My little brother, Tanner, and Devin's little sister, Chanel, went to the Brea High School Winter Formal dance together a few weeks ago. They were both styling in their cute outfits and they told us they had alot of fun. Devin and I went to the park to take these pictures of them before the dance.

Baby Eliza's Blessing!

Katie and Brent (our awesome friends from Hawaii) came to California for a wedding and to bless their cute baby girl Eliza. We were so excited to see them and Eliza, who was born less then 2 weeks after we moved back to the mainland. The baby was blessed at Brent's house and Eliza looked adorable in her blessing dress. We also got to hang out with them a few days later and grab dinner. After dinner we got frozen yogurt and played our favorite card game Nerts. It was so fun to hang out with them! We love those guys! (and super miss them)

A week in Carlsbad

My Uncle Richard and Aunt Irena let Devin and I use there timeshare in Carlsbad for a week in mid-January. The weather was perfect and Devin got to enjoy some good surf sessions. We went to Coronado Island for our first time and had a relaxing week. Above is a picture from our room, the sunsets were beautiful! Justin and Natalie joined us for a few days while we were down there and we had alot of fun. I also finally got to see the movie Twilight while we were down there, since I had been sick forever and hadn't had the chance to see it.

First Belly Shot!

Today I got another ultrasound, it was so exciting! They confirmed once again that we are having a baby boy. He was so cute and he seriously had Devin's lips in his profile shot. Our baby is so photogenic, he was moving around perfectly for the ultrasound pics. Besides his cute little face, my favorite was seeing him open up his mouth and watching his cute legs with his cute little feet kicking around. I know I've said cute about 50 times, but seeing his little body in the pictures, I can't help but say was the cutest thing! I am so excited to be a mom! Our little guy on the way has been kicking me like crazy! He just makes me laugh! I can't imagine when he grows even bigger in my tummy!

So here are a couple belly shots. I feel alot bigger than I am. Devin jokes that I already act like I'm 9 months pregnant...boy is he in for a shocker!

I AM PREGNANT!

Surprise! We are having a baby boy! I am already in the second trimester in my 18th week of pregnancy. The morning sickness just started to fade within the last 2 weeks, which is the reason for the previous 2 month blog hiatus. I am not going to lie, it was rough. Nausea and vomiting everyday is not fun. I am so grateful to be pregnant and Devin and I are SO excited to have a son!

Christmas Day!

Christmas morning was spent with the entire Dickson clan. It was so fun to watch our cute nieces and nephews open their presents. I wasn't feeling very well but I wore some sea bands to try to relieve the nausea. We went to the Glassman house for breakfast and to open presents with Tanner. With Cameron serving a mission, and Devon and Whitney in Utah, the house seemed so empty.

Christmas Eve and Holiday Parties!

Tawny's Christmas Party

Becky, Me, Tawny, Jessica

Kim's Christmas Party

Cousins! Tiffany, Me, Amy, Janae, Kim
Christmas Eve
My parents came to visit the Dickson's party

Dickson Christmas Eve

Devin & our niece Callie

When we got home from Hawaii, we didn't have much time to rest with the holiday season coming up. We had alot of Christmas parties to attend. To start, Becky treated me, Tawny, and Jessica to a dinner at the Summit House for some quality girls time as our Christmas gift. A couple days later we had a Christmas party at Kim's house with some cousins and our husbands. The next day was Tawny's Christmas party. Then we had Christmas Eve which I was sick for and missed the Stout Christmas Eve party. We stayed at Devin's parent's house for their party and I wasn't feeling well but managed to hang out for a while. Our neices and nephews acted out the nativity scene and it was so adorable. We love our family and friends! We missed Whitney & Devin in Utah and we were supposed to visit them the day after Christmas in Utah but I was sick. We also missed seeing Meg and Corbin (+Indie) in Park City.

Aloha Oe...Farewell Hawaii Friends!

Where do I begin? We moved to Hawaii in August of 2007 for Devin to go to BYU-H. The last thing we expected was to leave with the most amazing friends in the world. Sure, we'll miss the weather, the beach, the lifestyle...but nothing will compare to how much we will miss our friends. There were 6 couples that we loved to hang out with. They are the most fun, awesome, crazy, hilarious, generous, and nicest people we have ever met and it was so hard to leave Hawaii mainly because of them. About a week before flying home they threw us and "Aloha Oe" party, which is a Hawaiian farewell party. It was a surprise party so of course I happened to be wearing sweats and my ugg boots. Meg had put together a slideshow dvd that we all watched on a projector and they all went in on a photo book for us. We had dinner and played our favorite games. It was the nicest thing ever and we felt so loved.

Our fabulous friends:

Jackie & Chris

Meg & Corbin

Anna & Zane

Dan & Jonna

Lindsey & Seth

Katie & Brent

We love you guys and miss you soooo much!

Those 6 girls are the most amazing people in the world and I feel so blessed to have gotten to know them. Thank you all for being such good true friends to me and I hope I can be more like you all. I will miss the craft nights, the "desperate housewives" surf sessions, game room nights, barbeques, all day beach hangouts, watching "the office" and "the bachelor", soccer, and all of the other fun stuff we did!

Happy To Graduate.

I think grandma Dickson is trying to throw the shaka in this picture below.

On December 13th, the day after Devin's 25th birthday, he graduated from Brigham Young University of Hawaii. Devin's grandparents, parents, and all of his brothers and sisters came out for the occasion. My parents and Tanner came too and we were so excited to see them all since our last trip home was in April. Elder Eyring spoke at the ceremony and we cheered the loudest by far when Devin was handed his diploma. Devin got to graduate with one of his best friends, Travis Breneman, along with his wife Erin. With much hard work he graduated with a degree in International Business Management. We flew back home on December 17th and enjoyed being with family for the holidays.

To catch everyone up on November and early December...we enjoyed Thanksgiving at Jackie's house with all our friends and my brother Devin and his beautiful wife, Whitney, spent that week with us as well. We hadn't seen them since last January when they were wed so it was a delight to spend time with them.