|{ 9 Week Bump Update }|

I was originally going to start my updates at week 10, but I got too anxious so I decided to start a week early! :)  I had a couple of ideas as to what I wanted to do with these photos, I kind of wanted to do them outside but decided that due to weather it might make it difficult.  Then I thought that maybe I could do them in from of my window so you could still see the change of seasons but I couldn't make the photos look good due to too much background light. So I decided to do them in front of my fireplace, where you can still see the 'change of season' due to my decorations.  

I also am planning to take a nontraditional 'bump' photo each week, I'll start doing that next week.  :) 

So here we go! My first bump update post! 

How Far Along:  9 weeks!

How Big Is Baby:  Baby is the size of a green olive!

Total Weight Gain:  I haven't checked in a while, but last time I checked I was about 4 pounds higher than my pre-pregnancy weight.

Sleep:  Sleep is great! I feel pretty tired during the day so I always sleep just fine.

Best Moment Of The Week:  I started my new job on Monday!! That was exciting! I also got to do my first real pregnancy massage on someone and it went great! :)  It was kind of weird to think that there were 4  people in the massage room instead of just 2. :)

Food Cravings:  I had a friend tell me that he didn't believe pregnancy cravings were real (which I suppose makes sense) so I'm interested to see if I really feel like I am having specific cravings rather than regular non-pregnant cravings.  So far, not craving anything in particular. 

Food Aversions:  Anything with too strong of a smell, like my husbands sardines or hot dogs.  Nothing sounds good when I'm hungry so it's been kind of hard to decide what to eat.

Symptoms: 

Nausea-  Not bad, just a little queasy when I get hungry.  There was one evening this week that was particular bothersome, but still not bad enough to throw up or anything.

Cramping- Very slight, only every once a while.  I still hate when it happens though, I'm afraid something is wrong when I feel it but it's never bad.

Other- Mild fatigue, breakouts, slightly heightened emotions, sore boobies.

Gender:  No idea! When asked what we are hoping for we never have a real answer.  At the moment neither of us have a preference! Just healthy! Please be healthy!!

What I'm Looking Forward To:  I can't wait to start showing!! I want this bump to get bigger! :)

What I Miss:  Not a whole lot yet! I even kind of like my negative symptoms because it means I'm pregnant and I love that!! :)  Not even missing certain foods either because usually nothing sounds good.

Next Doctor Appointment:  October 30th! (Pretty sure it's going to be an ultrasound appointment and I can't wait!)

|{ Do Blondes Have More Fun? }|

I had the most lovely day yesterday! I went and got a massage (because it's a graduation requirement) and actually felt good results afterwards!! You would think that being in massage school would mean I get massaged all the time, which is partially true. I do get massaged, just not nicely. We're just bodies for other people to work on so our issues are not actually focused on, so it was nice to get a massage where and how I actually needed it for once! :)

Then I got to go and get my hair done! I REALLY needed to touch up my roots and I wanted some bangs too.  I also got my eyebrows shaped, which I have never done at a salon before, so that was cool! I have been working towards going lighter and lighter and this is wear I am right now. It's such a cool color! I really like how light it is! :)

I saw this photo on Pinterest today and I can't get enough of how awesome that color is!!!!

|{ Welcome To Your Nightmare }|

This year for Halloween we actually did something!! Last year we had nothing to do and it was a bummer of a day.  The only downside to this year is that our house is not visited by trick-or-treaters, sad.  At least we don't have to buy candy.

We dressed up as Dwight and Angela from The Office this year! On Friday night we went to a party with some people from our ward.  It was a blast!!! One of the best parties I have ever been too! We had such a good time.    On Saturday we went to a party with some of Jon's classmates but didn't stay too long (not our kind of scene), it was fun while we were there though!

Then on Halloween itself we got together with some friends from the ward, The Miners, and had dinner (Vindaloo!!) and then carved pumpkins and watched the Halloween episode of Modern Family! It's one of my favorite episodes. Gloria- "Welcome to your nightmare! Ah Ah Ah!" HAHA!!!  It was a really good Halloween! :)

Shalay's, The Miner's, Jon's

The back of Shalay's

Jon definitely got into character as Dwight! 

|{ Massage Therapy }|

I recently started school to become a massage therapist!!! I'm so excited to really learn and get good at this skill and so far I am really enjoying school, partially just excited to actually be in school again, it's so much fun! I can't even believe how much I just enjoy taking notes in class and doing homework at home!! (Silly, I know, but there you have it.) But I also just love what I'm learning! So far it has mostly anatomy but I enjoy that too because that's what hubby is studying and I like that I can understand better (though not to quite such a large extent) what he is talking about.

Last week we bought my massage table and I just had to do a selfie shot of me studying with my massage table set up!! :)

|{ Selfie Saturdays- GIFs }|

I was super excited about this weeks Selfie theme! I was one of the many people who asked Elena specifically to do this one and I couldn't wait to try it out!!!

See the post below for my hubby being attacked by a bird! It was that series of pictures that made me REALLY want to learn how to this and I'm so glad I got to do it GIF style!!

So the day after Elena taught us how to do it I went outside with my man and we took this series of pictures for our families back home!  It was also the first time we have done a selfie together, so that was fun.... Well it would have been more fun it we weren't being eaten by mosquitoes the entire time!

Here it is!!
We...Love...You!!

|{ Selfie Saturday- Magic Tricks }|

First of all, I am SUPER proud of myself because not only did I DO this challenge but I also did on MONDAY instead of putting it off until last minute! Yay!!

I don't really know what made me think of the photo I wanted to take, it just sort of popped into my head I guess.  I wanted to do levitation but I wanted it to have a story behind, a reason, so the one that came into my head first?!??! Alien abduction!! I think it turned out pretty cool, I am still trying to figure out if that is people think of when they first see or not, but that's okay if they don't.  I made some mistakes in editing, but for my first try I don't think it's too bad and I learned a lot just getting down and dirty and doing it! :)

So, here is my final product!! :) **Click to see full size! **

I posted this on Facebook and got tons of 'How did you do that?!?!' questions so I thought I would actually show you my steps into how I did this one.

It's all about layers!!

First I started off with my background:

Then I had to make all the floating objects:  

Then I wanted to make it even more dramatic so I grabbed my fan to make the curtains blow:

And last but not least.. me! It took me a while to figure out how I was going to do it.  I knew I had to find something to hold me up, so I grabbed some rolled up sleeping bags at first. I originally was going to wear some fairly tight pajama looking clothes so that it wouldn't look weird when I laid on the sleeping bags, however, the sleeping bags did not get the height I wanted.  I went looking for something else and found a couple of folding chairs.  It was perfect.  So I put on a flowy dress (too bad I didn't have the perfect white nightgown) since I now had the space between the two chairs to let it fall.  It was SO HARD to try to stay balanced on a couple of chairs sitting on my mattress AND try to take the picture AND make it look like I wasn't falling off the chairs. Haha.  But I did get a few good shots.  

Then I put them all together and did all the rest of my edits, like making it look more like night, changing the clock from 7 to 1, and adding a more obvious light coming through the window.  Ta-da!! 

It was a really fun challenge! I had a blast doing it!

I am so glad the weather is warming up because I really want to do next week's Jump Shot outside! 

  

|{ Selfie Saturday- Model Eyes + Arms Length}|

This weeks selfie challenge is actually My Friend the Fan, but I have really short hair and it really is kind of challenge for more of the long haired variety.  So while my current plan is to start growing it out again, I think I'll wait for that challenge when it gets to more to a movable length.

So, I didn't want to just skip a week, especially after I didn't get a photo in last week so I tried to focus on the challenge from a few weeks ago, Model Eyes.

I did this in the evening and the lighting is awful.  I also JUST took them and finished editing them, seriously like half an hour ago.  I also decided to attempt to do the challenge for Arms Length Selfies.

So all you lovely people out there, especially the ones who have done this challenge and know what to look for, what do you think?  Do my eyes look right or are they just weird?  Do they actually look like they are taken at arms length like they aren't supposed to?  Let me know, I need the constructive criticism in order to learn! :)

P.S.  I LOVED going through all of your Fan photos this week! You guys are so talented!! :)

  

I am SO SO SO excited for this coming weeks challenge, Magic Tricks, it's going to be A BLAST!! I am hoping to do it either tomorrow or Monday since they are my days off work.  I also can't wait to see what everyone else comes up with!!! :)

|{ Selfie Saturday- Focus (Bokeh) }|

Sigh, I am so disappointed.  I was so looking forwards to this week's Selfie.  The theme was focus with a more specific goal of 'bokeh'.  To quote lovely Elena, "For those not up on the lingo, Bokeh is the blur we get shooting at large apertures, specifically those beautiful light spots as a background that gather in clusters and give any photo a magical feel."

I am one of those 'not up on the lingo' people and I was excited to try this one! I even had planned out what I wanted to do, part of which included also practicing my model eyes from a few weeks ago.

However, the first few days of the week I kept putting if off because it was a little cold and I had plenty of time, right? Well wrong.  It started to get cloudy and even colder and my husband needed the tripod for a project at school so I didn't have it towards the end of the week, so I couldn't (easily anyway) do the outside shoot I had hoped for.  I also didn't really know how to go about shooting a bokeh photo.

I am NOT a total slacker though, just almost.  I DID pull out my camera and play around with the settings to try to figure out how to get those adorable light balls and when I finally figured it out I realized why exactly this challenge was placed into the focus theme! Because you need to focus on something in the foreground in order to get the little blurred balls in the background.

Anyway, long story short, hubby still has the tripod at school and I never got around to taking a picture, FAIL! BUT, I will STILL be doing this one, just a little late! :)

I also have been coming up with a lot of other selfie photo shoots that I would like to do so I'm excited for those too! :)

Here are the pictures I took trying to figure out how to use bokeh.  I was in the car waiting to pick hubby up from school one day.

Well that did nothing at all...

Sunspots, but not quite the same thing...

Blurry, but still not it....

There we go!! There are some bokeh spots! 

Now I just need to take some with me in it and hope they work out! I'm excited!!

Also, when I saw Elena's picture of her feet by the pool in her focus tutorial it reminded of a very similar picture I took about  2 years ago, so I went and dug it out and guess what! It has a little bokeh in it in the bush in the background! Sweet!

|{ Selfie Saturday- Self Love }|

So this is week 8 of the Selfie Saturdays challenge but as you already know, this is my first week doing it!!! I am so excited!!

I think this photo turned out pretty well for my first real selfie photo shoot! I tried a little to do the model eyes from the previous challenge but I kept forgetting and these photos aren't really close enough to really tell anyway.  I do want to do a model eyes photo though, so I will hopefully get to that soon! :) I just feel like I'm doing it wrong, haha!  It reminds me of America's Next Top Model 'smize'!

This week's challenge was a Self Love photo, a photo of you holding a sign that says "I am beautiful."  I liked this challenge, it reminded to see myself for the beauty that I have even though sometimes I don't feel it.  It also reminded me that you don't have to be what the world considers beautiful to really be beautiful!!

Also, my mom decided to join me for Selfie Saturdays and I AM SO EXCITED!!!! It is going to be so much fun to do this together and motivate each other!! Yay!

Here is my picture of this week!!  Click to make it larger.

This challenge also reminded me of the new Lady Gaga song 'Born This Way' where she says "I'm beautiful in my way cause God makes no mistakes, I'm on the right track baby, I was born this way."

So it made sense to me to take this photo too! :)

Put your paws up Little Monsters!! :)

So there we go, my first week of Selfie Saturdays!! I can't wait for next week!! The theme is Focus. 

 

|{ Selfie Saturdays }|

I started following this lovely blog called Selfie Magic probably.... oh what was it... 6 weeks ago or so, just as she was starting her challenge called Selfie Saturdays.  I LOVE THIS BLOG!! It is BY FAR my favorite one to follow!

What are Selfie Saturdays you ask?  Well, Elena (the gorgeous lady who owns the blog) writes up a tutorial/tip/example post about that weeks theme for taking self photos.  Then on Saturday you link up to her blog with the photos you took.  She is amazing! I learn SO MUCH from her ever single week and I am constantly looking forward the next week!  Then themes are so fun and her photos are so inspiring!

However, I have to admit, I have not been participating in the challenges... I have been wanting to but I always come up with excuses.  My biggest excuse being time and the weather outside being yucky, lame-o I know!  But after this super inspiring post  I felt that I can no longer just watch from the sidelines.  So, I am going to start participating this week! :) I can't wait, in fact, I plan to make up for the weeks I missed and take photos for the past challenges as well.

I decided to start doing it not only because it looks likes a BLAST, which it does, but I think it's really important to make sure we take the time to take pictures of ourselves! I am tired of looking through photos of fun times or vacations or holidays and realizing that are WAY MORE photos of my hubby and other people than there are of me.  I love having photos of myself that are current and I think it's important in order to document your life and all the things you've done.  I hate to think that when I have kids and they get older that when they look back on the photos over the years of their childhood that their mother is not really in them.

I really think that everyone should try doing this, even if you don't think you are 'good enough at photography' or 'don't look good enough', I know I certainly feel that way sometimes but I am excited to use this opportunity to learn and to get better and have more confidence!!

So join me and all the wonderful ladies who are also involved in Selfie Saturdays! What you say?! Let's give this a shot!!