Birth Date and Weight Poll

We can't believe we've finally made it this far! It looks as though we may have a baby sometime this year, finally!!

We have been so bummed this week because we keep experiencing false labor alarms. Three nights in the past week I had contractions for 40 minutes that lasted for 1-2 minutes and were consistently 3-5 minutes apart. Every time, though, at about 40 minutes they died off. I was so disappointed. I just can't stand waiting any longer for her to come!!

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We went to the doctor this afternoon and things still seem to be progressing smoothly. I didn't gain any weight between last week and this week, so the doctor thinks she won't grow a whole lot more before birth. Hooray for not having a fat baby. Hopefully.

We are so excited for her to come and couldn't be more grateful that she is still healthy, strong and staying in my belly! We were worried my whole pregnancy that I would have preterm labor just like my mom--but Olivia has proven to be a champion!!

We wanted to start a poll for the birth date and weight. Let us know what you think :)

Olivia's Nursery

It is such a relief to say that the nursery is finished. It has only taken me several months to complete this project--mostly because I have been working on it here a little and there a little.

What I have learned from this project--sewing custom crib bedding is a lot more work than it seems. I will pay someone to do it in the future.

Deer Valley Madness

Last Saturday Craig and I had another grand design adventure. If Craig had known when he married me that this is what he was in for marrying a designer, he may have had second thoughts. :)

This time we were up at Deer Valley Resort. I am now decorating a rental condominium at the base of the ski slopes at Deer Valley. The condo has four bedrooms, three baths, a kitchen, living room, and game room. The goal was to take out all of the dated (and awful, awful, awful) existing furniture in the rental and replace it with new, updated furniture and accessories in only one day. It was unreal!!

We started out our day at 9:30. We met up with three other employees at the store, loaded up all of the furniture and accessories that I had spent the last three days running all across the valley acquiring, and headed out for a fun filled day of decorating madness.

The first eight hours were spent moving furniture in and out of the house. I couldn't even bear watching these women and Craig carry the furniture up and down four flights of stairs. It was insane!! I honestly thought someone was going to die!

We took a lunch break at about three o'clock, and by that time, I think half of us were dehydrated and on the verge of exhaustion. I was even exhausted--and I wasn't doing any heavy lifting.

When we got back we we finally got started hanging pictures, making beds, and accessorizing. Craig and I even upholstered headboards! They turned out so cute!! I am proud of Craig and his remarkable craftiness! He's such a good sport.

At about ten thirty we finally all realized that we needed to be done for the day. We were all exhausted and overwhelmed by the project at this point. We finished a few final moving projects and loaded up the trailers with all of the awful furniture and headed home.

On the way home we stopped and got ice cream and I got some hot chocolate. We were so relieved to be going home. It was a long, long day, but I couldn't believe how much progress we made. It was unreal how the place was transformed in just twelve hours and under $5k.

The rest of the girls I work with went up again today hoping to finish up with the hanging and accessorizing. They joked that I couldn't come today because they didn't want me to go into labor. It's probably a good thing, because the entire way home from Deer Valley on Saturday I was having really painful contractions--I was ready to tell Craig at any moment to head to Utah Valley Regional Hospital, instead of home. Don't worry, no such luck!

We are having a professional photographer go up and shoot the condominium sometime next week. I will make sure to share the pics with you when we get them back. :)

Hospital visit and other goings about this week

This week started off with a trip to the hospital on Sunday. I woke up Sunday morning with the worst back ache of my life and I was leaking fluid. Craig and I were up at his parents' and we went back and forth for at least a half an hour debating whether or not I should call my doctor. Craig finally called the doctor for me.

The doctor told me that I needed to go into the hospital asap. I kept asking him if I could wait until later that night when we got home, but he insisted that we go up to Mckay-Dee in Ogden. I have to admit, the entire way up to the hospital I had butterflies in my stomach. Going into the hospital is a little unnerving when you don't know what the outcome will be. Craig made me even more nervous when he started saying things like, "We don't have our car seat or an outfit for the baby."

Getting tested for fluid was not the most pleasant experience, as well as waiting for the results of the tests for over an hour. So we just sat in the room and watched Wheel of Fortune and I watched our baby's heart rate and my contractions on the monitor. Who would have thought I was having contractions at 34 weeks--I had no idea.

Todd texted Craig while we were in the hospital and told him that we should induce. We got a good laugh out of that. A maintenance worker from my work called, also, and Craig answered and told him that we were in the hospital. He was alarmed and called another girl that I work with and, within an hour, I had two of my coworkers calling asking me if I was alright. I really appreciated the support from everyone--and Todd, if we could have induced, we would have. :)

The results ended up coming back negative. Craig and I were both thrilled and went on our way. I told Craig that it was a good experience, overall, because now we have a small taste of what to expect when we have our baby. That was a good practice round.

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I started a three week prenatal course on Thursday. Craig thinks he's getting off real easy because he's in school during the classes. I joked with him Thursday morning that he wasn't going to know what the heck was going on during labor, so he had me promise him that I would take detailed notes during the class. *If anyone would like to have an outline of how to differentiate between true and false labor signs and the three stages of labor let Craig know. :)

The Finer Consigner Local Artist Fair

Send an email to tfc@thefiner.com describing your handmade product line including pictures of the product. After being approved for a booth space on the showroom, you will be given a simple contract to fill out and sign explaining *how it works and how you, as the artist/consigner, will be paid out for goods that are sold in the three day event.

*How it works:
Artists will be given a 4’x4’ space to set up booth on the showroom November 5, 6 and 7. Tables will not be provided, so you are welcome to bring in any kind of table or form of display for your product that fits within the space limit from 4:00-7:00pm November 4. Artists will be allowed to have business cards, signage and any other tools to get there name out there. Each Artist/consigner will be given a consigner number to sell their products under. All transactions will be processed through The Finer Consigner at a 70/30% split. In other words, when your items sell in the three day period, you will be paid out 70% of the proceeds of the sale. That’s 20% more than normal consignment!! Consigner payout checks will be available anytime after Monday, November 9.

This will be an event you won’t want to miss. Hurry quick to register for a booth—spaces will fill up fast!!

http://www.thefinerconsignerhome.blogspot.com/

A few things we've been up to in the last week or so...

-We went to the doctor last Monday. The doc said that our baby could come October 21st and she'd be just fine. He joked that if she's not here after Halloween I could go hiking and do anything I wanted to induce labor.

-I worked my head off--111 hours in this last pay period, in fact. Don't know how I'm doing it. It's a miracle. :)

-I finally purchased my vintage hot air balloons for Olivia's mobile for the nursery and they came in the mail last week. They look like they're 40 years old. I'm in love with them! I'll get pictures up of the nursery as soon as I finish the bedding. I'm so excited!

-Craig got a huge crack in his windshield and I got my first ticket.

-Craig won tickets to the BYU-USU football game on Friday. We enjoyed a wonderful pregame dinner as well as half time treat and the best hot cocoa I've ever had. We had a lot of fun and were thrilled that we finally had an afternoon and evening together..those are few and far between!

-We went up to my parents and spent a great conference weekend with my family. The girls went out while the boys went to Priesthood session at Conference Center. I finally got registered at Babies "R" Us. My mom was so overwhelmed by all of the high-tech baby gear out there. Who would have thought "Jeep" had a brand of strollers, and not just that, but 12 different models. It's like car shopping! We are now registered at Babies "R" Us and Target.

-I got the stomach flu yesterday and was sick with something other than morning sickness for the first time my entire pregnancy. Luckily I am feeling a lot better today, but being sick is not fun when you're prego. I felt like a train wreck and probably kept my poor hubby awake all night from all of the moaning and tossing and turning.

Life's been so crazy and the time is flying so fast, but we are having so much fun and feel so blessed. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world to be married to Craig. I can't imagine having a more loving and supportive husband. He takes care of our family so well!

We are so excited for what these next few weeks are going to bring and pray that we'll be ready for our baby girl to join our family. We love her so much and can't wait!!

Adventure in Hide-Away Valley

Craig and I took an adventurous trip Yesterday out to Sanpete, UT. For those of you who don't know where that is, you could say that it's in between Manti, Price and the middle of nowhere.

I had a design in-home consultation with a client at their 24 bedroom lodge tucked away in Hide-Away Valley in Sanpete County.

I have never been so in awe of a space in my whole life. The project is going to be unreal!!

The lodge consists of four different houses (each coming in at least 4000 square feet) built and designed by a husband and wife and their three children. Each home was occupied by each of the married children and the parents. In the 80's, after 3 years, they moved to Arizona and put it up on the market for sale. After 18 years of renting it out, they sold it to the current owners. Needless to say, some of it was in pretty rough shape, but they have already done an incredible job of fixing it up.

It was incredible to go through each house and see the different flare and personality of each child's custom house, and then end with the Parents' home and grand ballroom.

The client is leaving out of a town for two weeks for St. Louis next week, so I am meeting Tuesday with the her at Home Depot to pick out paint, tile and a few other things for a bathroom so that the contractor can keep busy while she is away on business. In the meantime, I will be designing an entire house (Sunset, the home in the northwest corner) while she is gone. Wish me luck.

Busy Bees

So sorry we haven't blogged recently. With Craig going to school and working full time and me working 50+ hours a week, we are always flying by the seat of our pants. We feel very blessed that we can work so much, go to school, and somehow manage to keep our sanity and things running smoothly. I'm just counting down the days until our baby comes. Somehow I feel like that's when things will really settle down. I'm sure I'm sorely mistaken.

We are so excited for our baby Olivia to finally be here, though. Yesterday I bought the cutest coat for her and several little winter hats. She will love them just as much as I do, I'm sure.

Next week we go into the doctor for my 32 week appointment, and will then be going in every two weeks for a check up. I have been feeling great and am truly grateful (even though at times it may not seem the case) that my baby keeps me awake all night long doing jumping jacks, because I know she is healthy and strong.

Tiny Temptations

I must tip my hat to retail companies for requiring an email address at an online checkout. I am embarrassed to say now that I am one of hopefully many suckers that click on every add from the Children's Place and Gymboree advertising a sale or new hot "line" of clothing in my inbox. I can't miss out on any opportunity to get a good deal or miss a new fad in little girls' clothes. Craig has reason to be very, very afraid.

I just have to share with you a few tiny temptations that I have stumbled upon.

Honestly, how could any girl resist a pair of ballet slipper pink shoes with a big satin bow? I told Craig that I really want these to go with Olivia's blessing dress. The upside, I explained, is that we already (thanks to Debbie) have the matching bracelet to go with the outfit..so we can't feel as bad about splurging on the shoes. He is a kind man and understands that he isn't going to win this battle. I am thrilled!

Now these are slightly over the top but unmistakably one of the cutest "temptations" I have ever seen.

Along with these...


and this...

What We Did This Summer (LONG POST)

I'm reminded of the lyrics from a popular Green Day song released in '05 right before I got home from my mission, "summer has come and passed." If we could, we'd choose to wake up when October is ending just in time to get ready for our baby's birth. Instead, with school starting back up and full time work, we'll be busy, but we're looking forward to the upcoming months.

This summer we've reached a number of milestones and had a lot of fun and grown a lot together. We've also had different opportunities to spend time with family and friends. Here are a few highlights from our summer and hope you enjoy.

We started the summer off right with our annual skimboarding trip in St. George with the k-town crew. We always appreciate Taylor and Kelli Jacobson's hospitality and missed those who weren't able to make it this year! We had fun under the moon and in the sun. We also enjoyed some Japanese food at Samurai 21. Most saw the new Terminator movie and although I was there in person, my cinematic narcolepsy got the best of me this time.

We went in for our first ultrasound and saw the first images of our baby at the end of June. It was a bittersweet experience in some ways (Jac's due date was moved back by 2 1/2 weeks from Nov. 5th to Nov. 23rd) but it was so neat to see our baby and find out that everything was going well. We'll be naming her Olivia. There are a few middle names in contention that include: Grace, Paige, Joy, and Jean. I know that I've posted some of these pictures before so sorry to those who have but we really like them (A LOT!). :)

Full body from head to toe, Obviously a Girl!

We spent the 4th of July weekend at Bear Lake and in Malad, Idaho. Both of Jacquelinne's parents grew up there and it was fun for me to experience Malad and spend time with her side of the family. We had a dodgeball competition, a waterfight, watched Malad Idol, and saw some great fireworks. Jacquelinne got me (us) a camera for my birthday that we absolutely love and have a had a lot of fun taking pictures throughout the summer.



Triple Rainbow from I-15, Bear Lake Early Morning, Wakeboarding


At the Malad Parade

For my birthday, Jacquelinne surprised me contacting some friends for a fun night at the Salt Lake Bee's baseball game. She only told me to get off work an hour early so we could celebrate. I had no idea why we were driving into Salt Lake until we got to the exit and then I figured out that we were going to a baseball game. We had vicariously won voucher tickets and I thought that's we were using but it turned out that a bunch of people were there to wish me a happy birthday and it ended up being a really great day!



At the Game - The Game

Our next fun vacation was over the 24th of July weekend. We missed the Altom family reunion in Oakley but it was for a good reason. Jacquelinne's dad had been planning a trip to Lake Powell forever and I'd never been. I really did miss being with family but had a great time on the water. We were on a houseboat for 4 days and 3 nights and it was a very relaxing and much needed vacation. We spent the majority of the time surfing and did some wakeboarding. I had hoped to do a Tantrum (backflip) but the water and I just weren't good enough this trip to allow it. Hopefully I'll do one eventually. Jacquelinne is an incredible surfer and can stay up for 3-5 minutes without holding onto the rope. I can surf without the rope for 3-5 seconds.


Attempted Tantrum, Jacquelinne Surfing


Gorgeous Lake, View Cool Cliff, Jac in the Flinstone's Car

Besides vacations, we've also been purchasing items here and there to get ready for Olivia. We feel semi-prepared and will do more in the next months to be as ready as possible when she is born. We are grateful for the love and support we've received from our family and friends and we already have clothes, a crib, a rocking chair, a carseat, bottles, and much more. Jacquelinne has been busy sewing a baby blanket, and baby crib bedding. They are still in the process of being finished but she is so talented and I'm glad she's able to add personal touches to most things we'll be giving to our baby girl. She's going to be an incredible mother!!!! Here's a link to previous posts about some of our things...LINK More to come later as we complete the nursery. To finish the summer here are the most recent ultrasound images of our beautiful baby girl. We had an ultrasound this past Monday (8/31) and found our that everything is going well. Olivia already weighs 2 lbs 8 oz when 2 lbs 6 oz is normal at this point in the pregnancy. Her heart is strong and she has a good heart rate. They tell us that she is developing very well and we hope this trend continues. We're so excited to become parents and to have our family grow. Thanks again for the support. Also, thanks to anyone who took the time to read any or all of this post. I know it was long but we had a lot happen (some of which was not even mentioned).

Our Chubby Baby Olivia!!!!

A Little Bit About My Job...

Hey thanks you guys for taking a look at my work blog and for your questions. I apologize for not being very specific about what I do. Here's a little bit about how we work.

We are a furniture and home decor consignment shop--meaning that we sell used furniture and accessories that the public brings to us. When items in the store sell, 50% of the proceeds of the purchase go to the consignor and the other 50% to the store.

The furniture and home decor that we accept must be new or in great condition and currently marketable.

A great deal of the furniture on our showroom has been consigned by builders of model homes, too, so some of the furniture is essentially brand new and has only been staged in a home for a short period of time.

Shopping at our store is very economical. Our general rule for pricing consignment is half of the retail or purchase price.

Just today, we had a lady come in and buy a Ballard Designs Rug that retails for $1699 and bought it through us at $699. She is thrilled!

The fun thing about our store, also, is that we get in new consignment everyday, so everything is constantly changing from day to day around the store.

If you've never been in to visit either our Salt Lake or Pleasant Grove locations, please stop in even just to say "hi." You will be hooked! :)

Salt Lake City Location:

7817 South Highland Dr
Cottonwood Heights, UT 84121
(801)453-9888

Pleasant Grove Location:

285 East State Street
Pleasant Grove, UT 84062
(801)701-0603

Craig keeps telling me that I need to share with you the blog that I have been keeping up since early May for my work. You could say it's what keeps me from blogging on our personal blog.

Hope you all enjoy.


thefinerconsignerhome.blogspot.com

Shopping Spree

I guess right now is the time to buy and so we've been buying a few things to prepare for our baby, Olivia! Jacquelinne is all about finding great deals online and here are a few pictures of things we've bought this week.

New Car Seat
We saved over $100 and it shipped in 1 day for free!

New Microsuede Rocker found on KSL.com

Saved Almost $200

Comfortable Chair for Jac to rock baby Olivia

Gone Fishin'

...or sumthin' like 'at! We're going to Lake Powell!! It's my first time ever going and I couldn't be more excited. I've been watching videos about Lake Powell for weeks and tutorial videos about how to do a back flip on wakeboard. If I succeed, we'll have a HD Video on here in a couple of days. Back flip or not, we'll be posting our favorite memories from this trip when we get home. Thanks to all those who read these posts.

Olivia's "Mini" Marvelous Crib and nursery thoughts...

First things first, I just want everyone to take note that I am finally writing a blog post on our blog. This will be the first one..so we'll see how it goes and if there will be any more to follow.

I have been tracking our crib online through Fedex for the past few days and am so excited to announce that it finally arrived today. I ordered it over a month ago, so if you can imagine, I have been anxiously waiting for it for weeks.

Much to our surprise, the crib is very "Mini." I had no idea when I ordered it that the size was any different than any other crib. I should have called my mom before ordering. haha So I guess I will be custom making sheets and a bed skirt to go with it--which I wanted to anyway.


Working at a consignment shop has definitely had its perks. I picked up these darling Hot Air Balloon prints for only a few dollars that I will have matted and framed custom for the nursery. They remind me of a wallpaper that used to hang in a bedroom at my grandparents'. I am so excited about them and love that they will be very charming and unique.

I found these fantastic hanging hot air balloons while I was working on a playroom for the parade home this spring. You can get them in many colors and sizes. I intend on making a mobile out of a cluster of them. I just love how vintage they look.

Blast From the Past

First Ultrasound

We went in for our first ultrasound on Monday at 11 am. It didn't take very long which was nice and we found out a lot of good information. When the sonographer started doing the measurements she told us that the baby wasn't as far along as we thought it was. This news came with some mixed feelings. For me (Craig), I was excited that we are able to go in for a second ultrasound in 6 weeks so they can get some good measurements on our baby's heart and brain. For Jacquelinne, however, she was a bit disappointed because they pushed back the due date by 2 2 1/2 weeks (from November 5th to November 23rd) and she feels like she's going to be pregnant forever. We're both excited to be having a Thanksgiving baby!

Although our baby was smaller than we anticipated, everything seems to be healthy and normal. The placenta was in a good position, the hear rate was 143 beats per minute, and although Jacquelinne hasn't felt much kicking yet, we saw the cute little feet, legs, arms, hands, ribs, and spine. The sonographer kept saying "look at that cute little baby!" We couldn't agree more. :) The best part of the ultrasound for us was finding out the gender. I had learned from reading some online articles that if it's a boy we would see one distinct line and/or "stub" which would mean "boy." However, three lines between the legs would mean "girl." As the sonographer was probing around for different positions, I saw three lines and said, "it's a girl!!" She didn't acknowledge my comment and continued to do more measurements. Then when it was time to reveal the gender, she turned to me and said, "I think you're right." It was such a tender moment to finally know that we'll be blessed with a little BABY GIRL!!! Jacquelinne was teary-eyed and there was a special spirit in the room as we held hands and saw the first images of our beautiful baby.

Jacquelinne goes in for a regular follow-up appointment in two weeks and we get to go back on August 3rd for the second ultrasound. We're very excited and feel blessed to have this awesome power to procreate and bring this precious spirit into this world.

Here are the pictures we got to take home with us.

Obviously a Girl!!

Mission Accomplished

After 2 1/2 weeks and much planning, we finally got our couch into our basement apartment!! It is no longer sitting vertically in the landing at the top of our stairs in the entry way. As mentioned in my previous post, the couch would not quite fit. We have some workers over today to cut out some of the entry way and refinish it so that we can get furniture in and out with more ease in the future. Even with the cut out, we still had a difficult time getting it in because of the narrowness of the hallway that is perpendicular to the stairway. However, with some stiff pushes and strong pulls, we were able to negotiate the sofa around the corner and into our living room. I'm not sure we'll ever get it back out but that's a thought and worry for another day.

Not the best picture but here's proof!

P.S. We are going in on Monday for "THE ULTRASOUND" where the sonographer will be able to determine the size and weight of our baby and let us know if the heart and brain are functioning properly. Pending the cooperation of the baby, we are also hoping to find out its gender. Stay tuned! :)

trying to fit a square peg into a round hole

When we moved into our new apartment we thought that we could use a day bed that Jacquelinne used when she was in college for our sofa in our front room. That ended up being a good idea until we set up the day bed and tried watching a movie. It was so uncomfortable and we needed a solution.

I spent last week finding what I thought were suitable candidates for our new couch on craigslist and ksl. I would then send the links to Jacquelinne for approval and she would politely tell me that she didn't like them and we needed to keep looking. Last night as I was getting in my car to go home after work, I got a call from Jacquelinne and she told me she found a couch that she absolutely loves! I'm not very picky so when I got home, I looked at it, liked it, and we called the sellers to let them know we wanted to buy it and went to look at it right away. When we got there, I gave it a good eyeball and measured it to make sure it would fit in our house and it seemed that it would so we bought it.

We don't have a truck so we called around and a friend knew a friend with a truck who was willing to help us so we picked it up at 10:30 last night. When we got back we took off the legs and got it down the stairs. When we reached the bottom my biggest fears were realized. When we first moved in, we had a hard time getting our box spring in and I was somewhat worried about the couch but figured with some pushing and prodding, we could negotiate the corner and get the couch in. I was wrong! We got within about an inch of getting it through but we didn't want to break the couch. We ended up giving up at 12:45 am and I woke up frustrated with the analogy of trying to fit a square peg into a round hole running through my head all morning.

I called my brother Brian this morning and we're going to send him some pictures of the ceiling where it's getting jammed and see if there's any way we can make an arch which will help us get things in and out. For now we're keeping the couch at the top of the stairs in the entry way with just enough room to open our door to get in and out. We'll use day bed for a little while longer and hopefully we can get this fixed soon because we really like the couch. It's deep and very comfortable. Just what we were looking for. Wish us luck!

From Orem to North Salt Lake to Provo

We moved out of our apartment in Orem at the end of April and Jacquelinne's parents were nice enough to let us stay in their basement for almost a month. They live in North Salt Lake and it was fun to be close to family and friends for a couple of weeks.

Jacquelinne stayed busy by changing jobs and working on her brother's wedding. She is now working for The Finer Consigner in Pleasant Grove. The first couple of weeks they gave her time off so that she could do the flowers for the wedding and she also did the bride's hair. She is also pregnant (17 weeks) and this week she woke up with a little baby bump! The morning sickness is over and for the most part she is feeling great. She does get car sick but fortunately our commuting days are over now that we've moved into our new apartment in Provo.

My grandparents own a fourplex in Provo and there was a vacancy so we decided to move to start saving money to get ready for our baby! It's a 1 bedroom apartment with some upgrades and we've gotten the go-ahead from my mom to do some more. We're going to start with the flooring in the hallway and the kitchen and are looking at different bids for either bamboo or tile. Hopefully we'll get that done in the next couple of months. There are a lot of young couples in the area/ward so we're hoping to make lots of friends! Moving is not fun but getting to know a new area and new people is! We don't have internet at home but I spend the majority of my time at work online so hopefully I can get some pictures up soon... Thank you to anyone who still checks up on us at this blog!

p.s. I fixed the background but I'm color blind so if anything needs to be fixed, please don't hesitate to tell me what I can do differently.