Baby Gerow

Well, 50% of you that voted were right...it's a Boy! And no, we don't have a name yet.

Here is a little foot and his profile:

These pictures were from the first ultrasound.*

These are from the second.*

His little feet together, 10 toes!

His cute profile again:

He had the hiccups during this ultrasound session...it was quite amusing to watch.

*During our first ultrasound they found a white spot in the heart - an Echogenic Intracardiac Focus (EIF). So they sent us to a perinatologist the next week for a follow-up ultrasound. The presence of an EIF with other abnormalites indicates a possible genetic problem, but found by itself isn't really cause for concern.

Fortunately both ultrasounds revealed that everything else with the baby looks normal so the doctors aren't concerned about it.

Next up: a profile picture of me :)

Merry Things

My family's Christmas Traditions largely revolve around food - the baked kind. So this time of year I get the urge to bake like no other...since I'm not at home to have my mom do all the baking, I've got to get the fix somehow.


So what's on the baked goods menu this holiday season?

Pecan Tarts - heavenly mini pies
Swedish Pastel Cookies - light, flaky cookies with frosting
Chex Mix - our Family's special recipe

ahhhh, 'Tis the Season to be Jolly!

Honest Blog

I was tagged to do a post including 10 honest things about myself...here it goes:

1) One of my biggest pet peeves is when motorcyclists don't wear helmets.
2) I don't like the Twilight books (I've only ready the first one and that was out of obligation).
3) I really want Cletus to be a girl.
4) That's why I decided to definitely find out the gender - so if he is a boy, I can get used to it.
5) We put up our little Christmas tree a few days before Thanksgiving this year (I'm usually pretty adamant about waiting until after Thanksgiving to start the Christmas season).
6) I wrecked my mom's car when I was learning to drive (there was this light pole....).

i couldn't think of more so I decided to share this post with Daniel - here are his:

7) I heart spreadsheets.
8) One of my pet peeves are bad grammar.
9) I had ninja turtle pajamas when I was six.
10) I like pickled beets.

The Guessing Game

We get to find out the gender pretty soon, so make sure to cast your vote!

Things are going well. I'm feeling much better and much chubbier. And I've started feeling the baby which is both very exciting and weird. Daniel is finishing up his next to last semester. Yahoo!

mmm, that's about it - we're pretty boring these days :)

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday here. Corrin, Adam, Amber, Stephan and Spencer (and Erma) all came up for the weekend. Dinner was fabulous. I made a new sweet potato recipe that everyone raved about. I got the recipe here. It was super easy and super yummy. After we stuffed ourselves we played some games and ate pie.

I made these cute party favors for each place setting. I got the idea here - they were very easy to make once I figured out how to steam them and they added a certain...je ne sais quoi.

On Friday we got together to go bowling. I got second lowest score and Daniel got second highest (yay!). Afterwards we went to eat at T.G.I. Fridays and saw Chad and Drew. That was lots of fun. Then it was on to the "Cousins" in Sandy for more visiting and pie.

Saturday was the big show down between BYU and Utah. We hosted a viewing at our apartment complete with lots of food to munch on throughout the evening. And we were victorious! Go Cougars!!!!

The star of the whole weekend, however was this little guy:

Spencer was such a delight to play with and make laugh. He especialy enjoyed smiling and laughing at Daniel. Soon enough we'll have one of our own!

Shout Out!

I thought I'd give a shout out today to one of my favorite Blogs. My friend Laura introduced me to The Apron Stage earlier this year and I have been back to visit it every day since.

This Blog is run by 4 amazing women - only one of whom I have ever met - but after just one read, I'm sure you'll agree with me. They write about funny things, and sometimes sad things, every day things, and out of the ordinary things. They write about life and love and everything that those imply. But it never ceases to entertain me and always makes me think. Enjoy!

We Came, We Competed, We Conquered!

Yesterday, Daniel and I competed in the 7th Annual T3 Triathlon at the Orem Rec Center. It was a beautiful day - we couldn't have asked for better weather. It started with a 3 mile run that went pretty well. Then on to the bike ride. It was gruelling for me - at least the uphill on 4th South. Everyone that we passed on the run, passed us on the bike. So by the time we got to the swim we had free range of the lanes.

I kept telling everyone that my goal was just to finish the race, but secretly I also wanted to make sure I did it in under 2 hours, and I did. I'm not sure of our exact times, but I think it was around 1:45. And Daniel stuck with me the whole way! He definitely could have done it much, much faster on his own, but I'm glad I had him by my side.

Sorry we don't have any pictures...we forgot the camera. But my Halloween costume below, was pretty close ;)

P.S. They are having another Sprint Triathlon in April, click on the picture above for more info.

Halloween Visualization

So, our triathlon is a mere 6 days away -eek! I decided that to help me prepare beyond the physical training that we've been doing, I needed to get in the game mentally - be the triathlete, if you will.

Here is me being the triathlete...although hopefully on Saturday I won't have any scary pirates coming at me. On second thought, that might just help me go faster :)

Drum Roll Please.....

Introducing:

Baby Gerow: affectionately know as Cletus the Fetus.

Arriving sometime on or around May 9, 2010!

Bikes and Mini Golf and Pasta

teaser: we've got a super-duper post coming up, so be ready!

So Daniel and I took our "new" bikes out for the first time on Saturday. Let's just say that I'm now more worried about the bike portion of the triathlon than the swimming. We took on a monster hill and I thought my lungs would quit on me. It was tough! We didn't go very far, but then we also did some running and some swimming. That's the first time we've done all three in one day. Overall I think it went better than I expected though.

Saturday was such a beautiful fall day (it felt more June than October) that we decided to go minature golfing and we invited Jared and Khristen to come along. It was great fun. Here are some shots of the pro-putters (I thought I had taken more pictures -guess not).

And to finish off the night, a new recipe - and once again I forgot to take a picture until the meal had been devoured. We had Spinach Ziti for dinner tonight. I was a little worried because my last couple attempts at cooking something new kind of fell flat, but this one turned out to be a winner. It was very easy and pretty healthy. I got the recipe from allrecipes.com and tweaked it a little, of course. I used frozen spinach (from our garden) instead of fresh and doubled the cream cheese (used light) and we didn't have nutmeg so I just added some other herbs to the tomatoes (basil, oregano, garlic powder and fennel seed). It was quite tasty!

Harvest Time

Last week we went to the garden. It was kind of sad - it wasn't as lush and green as it was the last time we saw it. The corn was all chopped down, the plants and vines were all turning yellow and brown. Those darned cucumbers were still growing!!! But we were there to finish the harvest -almost. We picked about a dozen butternut squash and pie pumpkins. Then we turned over some of the sweet potato vines to see if they had produced anything. Sure enough there were potatoes down there. It was too late in the day to dig them out, but we at least had peace of mind knowing there was something there to actually dig out.

Today (Monday) I turned one of these beautiful gourds into Curried Squash Soup. It was -interesting. I forgot to take a picture, but just imagine what baby food looks like.

I used this recipe from Pillsbury.com. It was very easy to make (aside from cutting up the squash) and had relatively few ingredients that were easy to find.

But, it wasn't fantastic. It was one of those foods where during the first couple bites you're thinking 'hey, this is pretty good.' Then during the next several bites your enthusiasm wanes. Finally you can't bring yourself to even finish the last little bit that's in your bowl.

I followed the recipe exactly and it turned out really thick - like pumpkin pie filling. I would definitely recommend this as a first course or as an accompaniment to a main dish. It doesn't hold it's own as a main dish. Small portions are best.

Daniel suggested that maybe it would have been better had we not pureed it and left it chunky and more soupy. Oh well, I'm glad we tried it. Now for a new, better butternut squash recipe...if you have any tried and true please pass them on. We've definitely got more squash.

Relaxing Weekend

We have enjoyed a nice weekend of sleeping in and watching a great General Conference. There's nothing much else to note other than Daniel finally bought a bike yesterday. We have just over a month before the triathalon and I'm getting a little nervous. My training hasn't been going nearly as well as I had hoped, but it's still ok if I come in last place right?

Cobbler - not just a shoe maker

We made some cobbler for a function the other night and got compliments on it so I thought I would post the recipe. The base recipe I got from allrecipes.com, but I tweaked it a bit.

1 (29 oz) Can sliced peaches
1 (29 oz) Can sliced pears
1 egg
3/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons butter, melted

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 2 quart baking dish. (I actually forgot this step and it turned out fine)(oh, and I used a 9x13 glass dish which worked just fine as well). Drain the peaches and pears and arrange the fruit in the prepared baking dish.

In a medium bowl, beat egg, sugar, and milk. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon (I also added a dash of allspice because I didn't have any nutmeg); stir into the egg mixture. Stir in vanilla and melted butter. Cover the fruit with the batter mixture.

Bake 30 minutes in the preheated oven. Cobbler should be bubbly and lightly browned. Serve warm with vanilla icecream.

Birthday Surprise

Friday was my 28th birthday. I can't believe how old that looks on paper - so close to 30. When I got to work this is what my desk looked like.

The theme was "Creepy Crawlers" because I'm always bringing in pictures of the bugs we find in our apartment to show my co-workers. The decorations were topped off with this super-huge hairy arachnid perched atop my computer - ewww!

Later that night just as Daniel and I were finishing dinner, his brother Mat called and said that his parents had a gift they wanted to give to me that night, so we headed on over.

But when we walked in I was greated by about 2 dozen friends and family all waiting to surprise me! Sneaky Daniel and been planning a surprise party for weeks! He did a great job of keeping it secret and pulled it off beautifully. It was so much fun to see so many people there - family, co-workers, old roommates and even mission buddies.

He even made and decorated a special cake for me! Do I have the best husband or what!?!?

Here I am blowing out the candles.

And speaking of creepy crawlers, here is the latest find from our apartment - gross!

Lately

After a two week break from school Daniel started fall semester on the 31st. But it's the beginning of the end - this is his last year!!!

We officially accepted a job offer with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Houston for next fall.

I have been all work, work, work and trying to keep my food down. (Thanks Maria for passing it on!)

We raided the garden last week of all the cucumbers, corn, peppers, onion and tomatoes. On Wednesday I played hooky from work and mom Gerow and I canned some salsa.

Today I made some really good food. Daniel said "these are the best pork chops I've ever had!" Yay me! I made spanish rice and pork chops in the slow cooker - tasty!

Last weekend we went down to Arizona for my nephew's baby blessing. My sister Amber had a bouncing baby boy - Spencer Kirk Lundell - on August 18th. Here are some photos from that trip:

This is my favorite picture - Spencer in his cute (and way oversized) cowboy bib.
How cute is that!

Baby Spencer in his cute blessing outfit.

The proud Lundell Family.

Here's the gang. Jared, Khristen, Emily, Daniel, Erma, Spencer, Amber, Stephen, Adam and Corrin. (Mom's taking the picture).

The Neighbors

We live in a half-underground apartment - so that means that we receive frequent visits from our neighbors, the Arachnids. These are most unwelcome visits mind you, but the Arachnids cannot be reasoned with and constantly show up un-announced and un-invited. And for some uncanny reason I always seem to be the one that greets them first; but I always make Daniel come to my rescue and "show them the way out."

The other week Mr. Steroid Arachnid decided to greet me in my shower. I did not like that one bit and very promptly summoned Daniel to send him on his way (if you know what I mean).

Yesterday Mrs. Steroid Arachnid finally came looking for her missing husband and we kindly helped her find him. ;)

A Beautiful Disaster

At the beginning of the summer, I had one goal: to hike Timp. I've lived in Utah for 10 years and have never done it; so it's been on the list and I decided that this was the year. Daniel was all for it and so yesterday was the day.

Let's just say that this trip was doomed before it even started. Friday night I was in a cranky mood - and a lousy 3-hour nap did nothing to help that, so when we left at 12 am to start our hike I wasn't any happier.

I proceeded to hate everything about the hike and let my complaints be known to Daniel. He - like a good husband - tried to remain positive and tell me it would all be worth it in the end. And so we kept on hiking through the trechorous blackness, through stream beds and along cliff walls and over rocky landslides.

Finally after 4 hours and 27 minutes of hiking and three wrong turns I was done. My head hurt, my hips hurt, my knee hurt, my back hurt. I was still in a cranky mood and I was really beginning to get scared. It was still very dark and the longer we hiked the more and more dizzy I felt - and when you're hiking up a narrow mountain path, balance it one thing you want to keep. So when we were about a mile or so from the saddle and we reached a part of the path that looked like it had slid off down the mountain side, I pulled out my white flag and surrendered. I did not want to slide off down the mountain after the path.

You might think dear friend that the trip must get better from here because we are now heading down the mountian. But oh no, don't be fooled. We now had to go back down the steep and slippery slope we had just climbed. I would much rather be going up than down any day. And so my terror did not end for a while longer until the grade lessened and the footing was more secure.

The sky was lightening little by little so that we could eventually see where we were going with out the flashlights but the remaining 4 hours of the hike back down never got pleasant. In addition to my head, hips, knee and back, now my shoulder was hurting and my feet were throbbing, all the water I drank on the way up had now reached my bladder, Daniel wasn't talking to me, and then there was the bees. I swear there was a swarm of bees that followed me all the way down the mountain and nearly gave me hysterics.

Am I sorry I wimped out a mile from the top and didn't get to see the sun rise from the summit? No. I was in such a bad mood I really don't think I would have cared if we had gotten to the top. Will I ever hike Timp again? Probably not. And I'm ok with that because I don't want to risk having a repeat horrible experience. Will I ever go hiking again? Of course! I still love hiking, but I have a few new rules: 1. I will not hike at night when I cannot see; 2. The entire path of the hike has to be dry - no crossing over any rivers or streams; 3. No part of the hike can be so steep going up that will cause me to wimper when I have to come back down. Those are reasonable requirements, right?

I did remember to take some pictures though. I suppose the only slighly redeeming part to the whole expereince was the views. Enjoy.

(click on this picture to view more)

Ok, after thinking about it for a while I did think of one other positive thing about the whole experience: we burned so many calories that we didn't feel guilty going to dinner at Chilis later :)

Delicious

As I think I've mentioned before, I like trying out new recipes. And fortunately for me I have a husband who isn't at all particular and will graciously eat whatever I feed him - thus making it that much easier to experiment.



Here are two of the latest tryouts that have made the cut:

Happy Cheese Bread

This recipe I found on a blog I like to read called Scribbit. The writer frequently posts recipes and in fact just this morning posted another one I really want to try sometime.

Since Daniel and I are huge fans of cheese, it wasn't a matter of If I was going to try making Happy Cheese Bread but rather when I would get around to it.

Verdict: It was as good as I hoped it would be but a bit of a challenge to make - mostly because of my ineptitude and not becacuse of the recipe. Although I did find I had to add A LOT more flour than the recipe called for. Still I would definitely make this again.

Cake Truffles

My co-worker brought these into work the other week for a potluck and they were a huge hit. So I knew I would just have to make them - and soon. (Yea, they're that good). She called them cake balls but I think Cake Truffles sounds more epicurean.

Verdict: They couldn't be easier to make and the best part about the whole concept is the endless list of possiblities mixing and matching cake and frosting flavors. The ones I made were cherry chip (cake and frosting) but I can't wait to try other flavors (german chocolate with coconut frosting, red velvet with cream cheese frosting, lemon flavors dipped in white chocolate...oh I could go on and on and on...but I'm drooling so I'll stop there.

When a Thing is Wick

and someone cares about it....it will grow.

We have had so much fun this summer planting and growing a garden with Mom and Dad Gerow and Grandma and Grandpa Gerow. My dad planted a garden often but unfortunately I was never much interested in helping out. Unforuntate because I've discovered that I love working in the garden! Watching the plants grow tall and green and then watching the fruit appear and rippen and then most of all eating the delicious harvest. I even love weeding!

(top: some of our bounty; right: Daniel, Mom, Matthew, and Grandma snapping green beans)

Year 1

Today Daniel and I celebrate our one year anniversary! I suppose that on such an occassion a women might tend to get mushy and nostalgic and philosophical or something. I will not. At least not in public. But I will say this much for all to hear (as trite as it may sound I mean every word of it):

Daniel is my best friend and I love him 365 times more now than I did

on our wedding day. Thanks for making me feel so very loved and so very happy!

We had a wonderful weekend celebrating as we went up to the Sundance Summer Theater and saw The Fantastiks and then we went horseback riding. We topped off the weekend with dinner at Bombay House and a movie. It was all so very fun. Except I always get stuck with the slow, fat horse....why is that?!

Here's to many more happy years together!!!

Arizona

A couple of weeks ago Daniel and I went to visit my sister Amber and her husband Stephen in Lake Havasu City, AZ (home of the London Bridge!). The ocassion was a baby shower for Amber (baby Spencer is due in August). Jared & Khristen and Corrin & Adam came down as well and we had a great weekend - highlighted of course by a Tetris Tournament.

On Saturday morning while the boys played more video games, the girls pampered themselves with a fabulous pedicure.

When it was time for the shower, the boys loaded up their gear and went golfing in Kingman and had a fabulous time. The other guys all mentioned what a great job Daniel did.

A lot of women turned out for Amber's shower and everyone had a lovely time. She got lots of great

things for baby Spencer.

We can't wait to meet him! And

we can't wait to come back to Havasu.

See you at Thanksgiving!

Fourth of July Fun

As part of the Freedom Festival in Provo every year, there is a Balloon Fest. Each morning at 6 a.m. for three days you can go watch the balloons inflate and take off. And if you're lucky and the winds are cooperating you can even watch the balloons land. I've lived here for almost 10 years and have never gone so we decided it was a must.

It was really cool to see the doezens of balloons being blown up. You could walk right up next them and watch it all happen.

It was even more fun to see them all in the air dotting the sky.

Here is something I put together of the video clips I took.



We also had a Burr Family Reunion in conjunction with the 4th. Lots of family was able to come in from out-of-town and we had lots of fun playing in the pool and eating. We had a yummy family BBQ at the Grandma House.

And of course, no Burr family gathering would be complete withhout explosives!

It was lots of fun and so nice to see so much family gathered together. Until next time!

Typical

A friend recently asked me to send a picture of me and my "hubby." We haven't taken any photos of us lately, but there was this one my sister took a couple weeks ago. At first I hesitated because, well, as you can see it isn't the most flattering photo; but it's typical. Daniel hardly ever stays serious for photo ops.
I knew he was going to do something silly, so I decided to join in.

I love destruction

Saturday night we decided to risk the potential rain storm and headed out to Bluffdale's Demolition Derby. Matthew and Michael came with us and we had a blast.

If you've never been to a demolition derby you are missing out! It is my new dream to be a demolition derby car driver. Who wouldn't want to play bumper cars with the real thing! it's so fascinating to see what happens when cars smash together. The loud beefy engines, the anticipation as one car gets momentum, the smash, the crunch, the mangling, and the explosion of the radiator vapors! It's so much fun!

As if the derby wasn't enough, there was a T-shirt contest in between heats. . . a frozen T-shirt contest that is. Rolled up frozen T-shirts were given to contestants who competed to be the first to unroll and put on the shirt. It looked like fun.

After seeing three or four people walk bast with a mouth-watering funnel cake, we had to get one. I love funnel cakes!

When the show ended we were hearded out of the parking lot like cows and I was tempted to start my own demolition derby but reason got the best of me. I hope someday my dream of becoming a demolition derby driver comes true!

-Daniel

This is one of my favorite highlights of the event. X-69 revved up and t-boned a car, simultaneously getting it's front end caught as it flipped the victim car on it's side.
And Daniel's dream could come true some day. At the beginning of the derby they had a raffle drawing and the winner got to be a driver in the second heat. He did a pretty darn good job too!

I'll just close with this last comment...people watching at these kind of events is just as entertaining as the event itself! And you all know what I mean.

-Emily

Happy Happy Joy Joy

Friday was Daniel's 27th birthday and to celebrate we had a BBQ with friends and family. It was great fun; thanks to everyone who could come! Daniel may have lots to say on the matter, but he's sleeping so therefore he forgoes any rights to what this post does or does not contain.

His brother Matthew smoked a brisket and a pastrami and they were most delicious - seriously. We just had some left-over brisket for lunch and we are still raving.

And mom made her oh-so-heavenly cinnamon roll wreath (that's what I'm calling it today anyway...it doesn't really have a name).


Daniel's request for cake was mint chocolate icecream cake. This was my first ever attempt at making one; and it didn't turn out half bad.

Happy Birthday honey, I love you!