Chelsea's request...

Okay I'm sure most of you know already but Chelsea wanted to see my progress...I'm 24 weeks and 5 days pregnant.  I know a lot of people go by months, but as a maternity nurse I'm counting the weeks and days...I know each of them count!!  Also I don't think months are very accurate because technically you are pregnant for 40 weeks (that's 10 months...not nine!!)  My due date is May 17th and we've been told its a boy!!  I swore I was going to take pictures every week and all that jazz, but then when you are pregnant and feeling really unattractive its not that fun to show off how big your belly is getting!!  I'm feeling great now, but from about week 5 to week 14 I felt terrible!!  I only threw up once, but I was constantly nauseated and didn't feel like eating anything!  Which as most of you know is far from my normal eating habits!!  Its the first time in my life I haven't craved chocolate/sweets all the time!!  The only craving I've really had is raspberries in the first trimester, but that's about it.  After the 14th week my eating habits are totally back to normal always wanting to eat junk food, but it's nice to feel normal again.  Well normal for a little while, now I'm starting to feel BIG and a little uncomfortable, which I know I'm just over half way and I'm going to get way bigger!!  Anyway I know that's a lot of random info that you probably weren't that interested in, but its more for me to at least have it written down somewhere, since I'm horrible keeping a journal.

Seabrook

My parents are builing a house out by on the coast and we went to see the progress and visit the little developement.  We took some pictures on the beach but it is Western Washington, so of course it was raining!


Christian and Savanah

Jena and I

Chelsea, Carson, Jena, me and Christian

More Family pictures!

Its a little difficult to get 7 kids ages 5 and under to all look at the camera and smile for a family picture!!

We did our best!!

Family Pictures

 Wes and I on the deck at my parents house.  This was one of the only times it was clear enough to see Mt Rainier, so we had to take advantage!

 A picture of all the girls in the Russell Family

 We had to get one with Mitzy in there!!

We left Wes home alone with all the kids one night after they all went to bed...Benson woke up!  We came home to Wes and Benson watching Toy Story 2!!

Christmas

 Santa comes to visit the house on Christmas Eve and gives us all a little gift so here's Wes sitting on Santa's knee!!

 Wes and I were worried about how Mitzy would do just roaming free at my parents house because they don't have a fence or anything, but she did great!!  My parents used to have a dog and she would always lay right here in the garage so Mitzy just filled her spot over the holidays!!

 Benson giving Savanah kisses in their matching Christmas PJ's!!

The little outfits we got for Baby Perez.

We've missed Emy and Trevor's family so far, but they are coming the 29th, I can't wait.  We had a great Christmas morning, it's nice to have kids young enough that they don't wake up and want to open presents at 4am!!  We opened presents around 8am and then had a wonderful breakfast.  Then had a relaxing day and ate the Salmon Wes caught for dinner that night, blackened Salmon Caesar salad, it was outstanding!!

Wes's best Christmas present ever!!

Wes caught his first Salmon on Christmas Eve!! Last night he organized a trip with Carson and  a family friend, and was so excited about it he couldn't sleep!!  They woke up at 4:30 am and got home around 3:30pm!!  He had quite a day but he was literally like a kid on Christmas morning!!  He also got to open one of his Christmas presents early, my parents got him a sweet Cutco fillet knife that he got to use after catching his Salmon!!!

Cafe Rio

Wes and I love this Mexican Restaurant in Utah called Cafe Rio where they have this awesome sweet pork salad.   So yesterday I found a copycat recipe for the salad on a blog and made it myself.  I used a dressing recipe that I already had, but I used the beans, rice and pulled pork recipes.  Everything turned out awesome, surely the best meal I've ever made!!!  I was really proud of myself because usually Wes makes the great meals in our house!!  The link to the website I used is the Favorite Family Recipes just type in Cafe Rio in the search bar and you'll find it!