Easter!

 The Easter Bunny made a stop at our house this last weekend! Carl got to have an Easter Egg hunt - and he found LOTS of great treasure! :)

We had a great time Easter Morning. We slept in - it was Stake Conference (yeah...we skipped it), and we made breakfast and found all the goodies that were left for us by the Easter Bunny! 

Later in the day, I had to go to work for about 2 hours. Then, we went to my Grandma and Grandpa Rasmussen's house for their traditional Easter Dinner. There was ham, potatoes, salad, and of course - ROLLS. Baby Vermillion was so happy about all the delicious food. He was just kicking away!

 We hung out at Grandma and Grandpa's for a while. We played with Kyson, Shamae's grandson. He's 3 (I think) and he has such an active imagination! It was so cute! We played guns and I had shields and force fields. And every once in a while, Kyson would talk about Jesus and the Resurrection. He kept saying, "Jesus was in a cave, with a rock. And no one could get in the cave except for the angels." It was so funny. 

Easter is a wonderful time to reflect on the Atonement and the Resurrection and what it means to each of us personally. I am so thankful for the Atonement, and for the sacrifices that Jesus Christ made for me. Easter, each year, is a time for me to reflect on what I am working on, and how I can be better. It's sort of like New Year's resolutions for me. But with a more spiritual outlook. 

This is our loot from the Easter Bunny. The Easter Bunny  must have known that Carl has a love for all things Reese's. :)

We hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!!!

It's a BOY!!!!!

We are beyond thrilled that we are having a boy! I think Carl is way excited to have a Carl Jr. running around. :) The baby is doing great! We had our ultrasound on Thursday, and everything looked PERFECT! I am praying for a healthy baby :) We got some great ultrasound photos. Baby's heart looked great - the tech kept saying how beautiful his heart looked! Got a DEFINITE gender shot ;) and we got to see his little feet and fingers!!! So cute! The only thing we didn't get to see was his profile and face! That little turkey kept putting his arms up in front of his face blocking it! We tried to get a profile shot for 20 minutes! We shook my belly, and NOTHING! That little stinker...haha :) But he was so cute just moving around! He was a little wiggle worm!

We kept it a secret from our family members until Saturday. My brother is home on leave from Iraq for 2 weeks, so we all got together on Saturday for pizza and laser tag! 

 

So, my dad was up from St. George,

my sister Renee and her daughter Lindsay were here from Boise, 

Mitch was here from Iraq - it was the perfect opportunity to reveal the sex of our baby :)

 

I made cupcakes for all the family. I carved out the inside of the cupcakes and filled them all with blue frosting. 

 

Then, I frosted the top of them with PINK and BLUE frosting - to throw them off! Then, we had everyone take a bite of the cupcake at the same time and then they got to see the inside of the cupcake with the BLUE frosting!

It was so much fun! For Carl's family - and for MacKenzie since she was in Arizona - we sent an e-mail with all the ultrasound photos and photos of the cupcakes! I hope they liked it!!

 
 Brittany and Shaun enjoying the cupcake!!!







We are praying for a happy and healthy baby boy and we can't wait to meet him! Now comes the hard part...a name! 

Oh! And, today marks 20 weeks for me! I'm halfway done! I can't believe it!!! So much to do!

Here it is...

my FIRST pregnant picture!!! Eeek!

18 Weeks and 2 Days

And, for your entertainment, here is another one that I took right after this one...

The last few days, I have really started to show and FEEL pregnant! Holy Moly! It is so great though. I am loving being pregnant. I started feeling little flutters about 2 weeks ago - at first I wasn't sure if it was the baby moving or just my lunch...but I have decided that it is the baby! It is so wOnDeRfUl!!!

We get to find out the sex of the baby NEXT THURSDAY April 14...any guesses on the gender??? When I was first pregnant, several of my friends gave me their opinions on whether or not to find out the gender. One girl from work didn't find out until the day her son was born. She said it was like Christmas time in the delivery room. She loved every second of it. Another friend told me that she HAD to know because she wanted to know what she needed to buy! 

I talked with Carl about both of these options (since there are only two...haha) and I was really leaning towards having the sex be a surprise! I thought it would be just like the movies - delivering the baby and having the doctor say "It's A ______!!!" But Carl wanted just the opposite. I find that I have to be careful with how I think. It would be really easy to say, "I'm carrying this baby, so we should do it my way," but that wouldn't be fair to Carl. So, we talked about it, and decided that as we have more children, we will leave some to be a surprise. 

Carl is convinced that this baby is a BOY. So is my mom. I secretly think it's a boy too, but I'm hoping it will be a girl. I hope I don't offend anyone, but I think that those women who get really depressed about having a boy instead of a girl, or the other way around, are ridiculous! The way I see it, is you go into pregnancy with a 50/50 chance of a boy or a girl. So, when I see women saying that they cried when it was a boy and they really wanted a girl, it kind of makes me a little frustrated. (Hormones, anyone?) Would you love your baby any less? I realize that these women go on to LOVE their babies no matter what, and they eventually forget that they were disappointed in the first place. I guess that is just my rant for the day. :)

So far, this pregnancy has been great. I don't have anything to compare it to, so that makes it easy I guess. I haven't really had any weird cravings - just a LOT of citrus! Oranges and GRAPEFRUIT are the two things I can't get enough of. The only thing that has really changed, besides my energy level, is that I can't brush my teeth without gagging. I have to brush right when I wake up, or I risk losing my breakfast. It's horrible because I am a freak about brushing my teeth! Hopefully this will pass too.

I hope you all are ready for lots of baby themed posts, because they will be coming!