You're Invited to a Mustache Bash

We are back in Utah and Idaho now-a-days and I am finding myself with a little extra time on my hands and missing these great people: 

Right before we headed out for the summer, my two great friends Alysse and Jane threw Kimball and I the most adorable baby shower. Let's be honest, sometimes the conversation at baby showers tend to gravitate towards talking about sore lady parts or the baby's latest blowout which no one is a fan of, so we thought that a co-ed shower with more of a 'bbq feel' would be the most fitting. It was such a blast and we couldn't have asked for a better goodbye/happy baby party. Kimball even learned some 'baby shower etiquette' when opening gifts in front of everyone; it wasn't as comfortable as he thought it would be :). We have some of the most amazing friends and feel so blessed to have gotten to know them over the past year. Pretty sure the Allens and Stantons were up all night making the adorable decorations and incredible food. Can't thank you guys enough, we loved it all!

Happy 75th Birthday Mr. Golden Gate Bridge!

A couple days ago, the Golden Gate Bridge turned 75 years old. I have to say I really am not much of a city girl. I have developed such an appreciation for cows and endless fields whenever I see them back in Idaho and Utah but the city has some incredible perks too, like getting to watch a firework show being lit off the Golden Gate Bridge. I don't think anyone could ever get sick of looking at that iconic bridge. Whether it's the safety orange color or the mountain drop background, there is just something that makes it so much more spectacular than any ordinary bridge. I really feel so lucky that we get to spend this little chapter of our lives in such a beautiful place, not to mention our incredible, photogenic friends that we get to share events like this with; love those Youngbergs and Allens and baby Evie was a real champ.

And we just found this fun video of the whole celebration: http://vimeo.com/43004940

Friends in the City

I have some catching up to do. Over the last month we had some of our besties come and visit us. Sydnie the crazy, decided the day before that she needed a weekend getaway and bought her ticket for the next night. That's the kind of spontaneity I can only hope to have one day. We had such a good time at the Farmer's Market on the Pier, checking out all the street performers (we saw all my favorites including trumpet boy, the bush man and the robot dancers) got clam chowder and hit up the beach when Kimball was done studying.

My favorite picture of the weekend definitely came from the beach visit. Unbeknownst to us, the beach we chose to go to happened to have been the most popular nude beach in San Francisco. And I thought walking down the street in the Castro was a sight for sore eyes. I had no idea that it was fashionable to walk around in just your shirt and flip-flops or if you're a woman, just your pants and bolo tie. Unfortunately, someone at my house also thought it was a great idea and no it is not me. Anyways, I would share the money shot with you but blogger.com won't allow it, ha! I'll leave it up to your imagination to fill in the blanks.

And then the very next week, we got a wonderful visit from Emsio. And we just talked. I can't even tell you what we did and my phone being broken has left me with a lack of pictures except for the super flattering ones the boys decided to take while Emo and I were on a bathroom hunt. I just know that we talked and talked and it was awesome. We went on a gorgeous hike in the Presidio, got some killer ice cream, ran (and someone walked) across the Golden Gate Bridge because one of the items on Emo's bucket list is to run across one of the 7 world wonders. The GG Bridge is number 8 on that list if anyone was wondering. :) Had a beautiful temple visit and then I drug them all along to an overrated flee market and then before I knew it she was gone again! Come back Emo, come back.

Happy Mother's Day!

Recently, Allegiant Airline has opened up a new direct flight from Idaho Falls to Oakland and at the most ridiculous and fantastic prices ever! So I decided that for $50 each way, we could afford to send me home for a quick Mother's day/Mother's birthday weekend surprise visit! With a lot of help from Kimball's family and my brother's, we were able to throw my mom a little birthday bash. It seems like surprises are the only eventful things that happen in my life right now but seriously it's Kimball's and my way of  making it up to ourselves for having to miss out on all of the little get-togethers that our family's do while we are 12 hours away.

The original plan was to dress me up as Tyson's new girlfriend and have me sit in at dinner at Olive Garden (mom's favorite) until she realized that Tyson's new girlfriend looked strangely like her daughter and was for some reason, already pregnant. But because of a five hour flight delay (guess that's what you get when your entire flight costs only $100) the boys had to do dinner without me. So as soon as I got there, we threw a nasty black, Frankenstein's wife looking wig on me and the boys gave me Mom's dessert to bring into the kitchen to her. Tyson took some footage of the whole evening surprises from her dinner to the new tv to her visit from Samara from the ring (aka me) which can be seen here, here and here. Video #3 shows the unexpected reaction of her crumbling to the floor with laughter. Seriously? No tears? I come all this way for her birthday and she doesn't even cry? She just laughed at my dumb wig. Typical Sheri. I feel like I post videos of her like I'll post videos and pictures of my baby. But for now, she entertains me like a small child would. :)

The rest of the weekend flew by as I got to be there to say good-bye to my sister-in-law Mandi before she headed off to PA school in Philadelphia and spend time with my wonderful Burton family. Only one month left 'til we move home for the summer!

The Burton Family minus some keyplayers (Kimball, The Adams and Jeddy)

Mandi's Going Away Party

Don't forget, Trevor was there too.

To Haley, Amanda and Liz

We always joke about me getting on the blogging train, and how terribly terrible I am at it but you guys have to understand that the pressure you put on me after reading your eloquent blogs has been building for years now. I just had to wait till I had something big enough and exciting enough and interesting enough to write about. And it's finally here, my cookie-crumbling story has arrived! :) To be honest, I was starting to write about weird news reports, that's how boring work and the nightly television had gotten in my life ;). Plus, I figure you three are the only ones that will ever check out this blog, oh and the occasional family member and of course Taza (she already asked if she could do a guest post, I'm still thinking about it) but I wanted to share my fun news (feel free to scroll down whenever) with you guys in a fun way that we've been joking about for forever. I'm always telling you that my awesome blog is almost ready to go public. And yeah yeah, it's not great, there are a lot of missing pictures and it's no Amanda the chef or Haley the poet or Liz the Frenchy but now you guys can start teaching me. (PS Haley, you went private and since I've been inactive on this thing I don't have access anymore, invite?) I miss you best friends! Now you have a super valid reason to come visit San Francisco sometime in the next year cause this kid is going to need to meet his/her aunties :) Love you besties!

Sharing the News

Kimball and I have been scheming for the past couple months about how we wanted to share our good news with our families. My family does an annual snowmobiling trip every winter and knew that we'd be flying in for it. Please excuse my irreverence in the following video but seriously my mom's face was just too priceless.


Seymour Surprise from Tess Burton on Vimeo.


Kimball's family had no idea we were in town so Sunday morning we snuck up to Idaho and skyped them from their next-door neighbor's living room. I think the triple effect of BAM, we're in town and BAM, we're pregnant and BAM we're going to be here to have the baby BAM BAM BAM was a little overwhelming. Courtney didn't cry as hard as I was hoping for but the tears they lacked were made up for in high-pitched squeals :)

Burton Surprise from Tess Burton on Vimeo.

So Monday afternoon we had lunch with the Burton aunts and uncles and then headed back to Farmington where we met up with Whitney and Matt at a gas station in Kaysville. The original plan was to catch them at Matt's in Bountiful and hopefully get to watch the Bachelor with them but poor planning on my part had us spoiling the surprise to Matt and getting him to pull over on their way back home to Logan. We faked a letter from ABC saying that Kimball and 3 guests had won a trip to L.A to take a tour of the Bachelor mansion. Yeah, we got a little carried away but it was so worth it.
Checkett's Surprise from Tess Burton on Vimeo.

Right after the gas station attack, we had dinner with my mom and headed to Salt Lake where conveniently Mandi, Sarah and Tanner were watching the Jazz game at Mandi's boyfriend's house. We did a quick in and out, showed some ultrasounds, and a few belly rubs for the belly that isn't really there yet and then we headed on our way to the airport.Unfortunately I forgot to pull my camera out until the last second for this surprise but it was a great way to top off an incredible weekend.

The Kid's Got a Face

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. I finally understand what Dickens was talking about. No but seriously yesterday was a really great day and a ridiculously hard day. I don't have a legitimate excuse for my poor performance at work lately except for that being a receptionist just plain sucks. Most days not only do you feel like the bottom of the totem pole but you feel like the dirt that the totem pole is stuck in. Combine that with the constant nausea and entire lack of energy that the first trimester brings, and you get a giant dump of yesterday. My slacking was brought to my attention pretty bluntly by 3 people to be exact, one super intimidating boss, one arch enemy and one girl I actually really like. :(

I've been trying to schedule a "hey boss, I'm pregnant, thought you should know" meeting and she's been trying to schedule a "what's going on with you lately" meeting, the two collided into one ultimate disaster. She asked "what's going on with you?" and I said, "well actually I've been wanting to talk to you, I'm pregnant." And she said..... "Oh Shi*! Are you serious?! Well you won't get salary while you're gone" and utter disappointment flooded her face. Not the greatest first reaction to the greatest news I've had in a long time but anyways, we carried on an awkward, uninteresting and quite annoying five minute conversation and then da da da daaaa....

 I got to go see this:

And everything was okay again.

Second Trimester!

If you’ve been around me as of late, then you can testify that hanging out with a pregnant lady in her first trimester is nothing short of an absolute roller coaster. Kimball can attest to this the most though because really, we try to avoid other people when I’m feeling like I am going to puke all over those brand new shoes you’re showing me. I think we’ve done a pretty good job of concealing it with a lot of lies and Kimball actually holding me back from snapping at certain people during Sunday School, (trust me, pregnant or not, you would have wanted to deck this guy in the face for chewing his gum that loud, too). It amazes me how much I’ve already changed and still I can’t grasp the fact that we are really going to have a baby. A BABY. A little human. A perfect little combination of Kimball and I. With skin and bones and a heartbeat and I’m sure a handful of attitude; regardless of gender. I had my first mommy cry last night as we were watching American Idol. Really? That’s what it takes for reality to set in? It wasn’t after we saw the ultrasound, wasn’t after we heard the heartbeat. But American Idol? How ridiculous, yet fitting. Anyways, it was just a mom kneeling down by the tub, with her two little boys splashing together in the bathtub and I realized, that is my future, my very very near future. We’re a couple days away from the second trimester and it’s starting to feel safe to accept and believe and hope that this is really happening for us. I’m just barely opening that gate of excitement so I’m sure it will kick in full blast sometime soon.

This past month has been challenging. I’ve been a pretty sick girl. I’m lucky that I have such a patient and loving husband who lets me crawl straight into bed from work and not lift a finger once I get home. Seriously, he treats me like a pregnant princess. It has been nuts to watch my body transform. Super weird. First thing we (Kimball and I) noticed was the swelling of my mosquito bite boobs. I know most of you haven't seen me in awhile, what with us living in California and such but it really happened, this is actual factual news. I. Grew Boobs. Thank you baby! But.... about a week later I started to grow a stomach as well, so the flattering new look has become an over-all bleh and we all know it's just going to get worse. I don't want to sound like I'm complaining because in 7 months, I will have me a precious baby and so all of this is totally worth it and fantastic and quite beautiful but I did want to document my symptoms and changes for future reference.

We didn't find out we were pregnant til we were about 7 weeks along. An irregular cycle, Christmas vacation and a little bit of denial had a lot to do with that. But I swear the day after we found out I was sick as a dog. Kimball actually said to me, "I'm pretty sure this might be all in your head" and I believed him because none of it felt real. At first I was starving all of the time. I ate everything I could see for about two weeks. I was always eating and it made me feel great!  So I pretty much just ate all day long. And I actually think I lost a little weight; crazy I know. Then the nausea hit. That lasted about a month. I was constantly googling "can pregnant women eat _____" and on occasion, pictures would pop up that just the sight of would make me throw up. My first case of morning sickness at work was interrupted by the janitor knocking on the door and standing outside of it for the whole 15 minutes it took for me to feel comfortable walking away from the toilet. I actually said, "ha, sorry that took so long!" and kept on walking. Ew. Awkward. But not as bad as my 4th or 5th time when I decided to have a raspberry crystal light to wash everything down with right before it all decided to come back up and of course it stained everything inside of me red. What a fun sight it was for the lady that walked in on me, bent over the toilet appearing to vomit my actual intestines, all stained a very horrifying shade of dark red. Too much? I'm sorry. It's the truth and this blog isn't even public yet so I don't care. I think the worst/most unfortunate/funniest aversion I've had yet though has got to be that I can't see my husband naked without gagging and running for the toilet. I think my subconscious knows exactly who got us into this sick-mode and has decided to stay as far away from him as possible. Ha. Poor guy.

Luckily things are starting to get better with the beginning of the second trimester. For starters, I'm beginning to believe that there is a baby in there. I'm absolutely ecstatic about getting to go home and tell our families and soon after, our friends. Two weeks! Second, Subway and Saltines have been the only thing I could consistently eat that didn't make me sick this last month but now I am starting to eat and I don't even gag every morning when I get out of bed. But seriously I just need to know, why doesn't anyone ever warn you about the awful case of the pregnancy gas/burps? This needs to be discussed more openly. Not by me of course, but it should be right up there with morning sickness on the list of well-known and common pregnancy symptoms. Geeze!