It's A...

We went in for our 20 week ultrasound and we are thrilled to announce...

It's a bird! No, it's a plane! It's a.... SUPERMAN!

Everything looks good and we're very excited (although we were already certain it was a boy)!

I made the announcement to my classes over the last couple of days and asked for a class guess regarding the gender. This was the first time I even made mention of my pregnancy. Here were some of the responses I received:

"I called it!"

"You want to know how I knew? It's because of that one day you wrote, 'Yo como pizza', on the board, and you were like, 'Mmmm...that actually sounds good right now...', and I thought, 'Yup! She's pregnant!'"

"It's because of the way you rest your hands on your stomach! I've seen you do it before, and fat people don't do that, just pregnant people!"

"Wait, before we guess, what have you been craving? That says everything about the baby!"

"I didn't want to say anything because, when I was a boy, my father taught me this lesson about not saying anything until you were absolutely sure..."

The classes who guessed the gender correctly get to take an upcoming test on Wednesday instead of Monday. So, half of my classes will be taking a test on Monday. But I might just be nice and have them all do it Wednesday.

The pregnancy has been fine so far. I'm really liking the second trimester more than first. :) And it's been fun to feel the baby move; even though the movements aren't strong enough for Travis to feel anything yet. We even saw our baby wave to us at the ultrasound! Anyway, we're super excited. :) Now we can start thinking of boy names...

Pi Day

Pi day is one of the most important holidays (Travis would probably say THE most important...) of the year for our family (3.14). We celebrate it with our friends every year, and what better way to celebrate Pi Day than by eating pie? We always make too many pies, but I guess that's part of the fun. :) I made peanut butter, tollhouse, and grasshopper pies. We also had chocolate satin and a fruit pie.

Speaking of pi, I thought I'd take a snap-shot of one of Travis's homework assignments. Just because it's so...Travis.

Happy Valentine's Day...Baby!

Even though Valentine's Day was two weeks ago, we still wanted to wish everyone a happy Valentine's Day while it's still February!

So... Happy Valentine's Day!

Love, Travis, Lacee, and Baby!

Love At First Sight...

Five years ago this week, I met the love of my life. :) Whenever people ask how we met, I give the short answer, "Through friends". But, of course, there's a huge story behind it.

Travis had been back from his mission for a few months, and I had just finished my summer/fall track from BYU-Idaho to spend the winter track home working. We had a mutual friend get home from his mission in late February, and I thought it would be good to have a get-together with him and other high school friends. One night, Rob (our mutual friend), called me to ask if he could bring his friend, Travis, to dinner. Now, I had heard of this "Travis" before. Rob and Colby had always talked very highly of their friend who spent high school in South America. I had even seen a picture of him; it was one of Rob and Travis when they had just gotten their Eagle Awards (about 12 years old in the picture- cute...), but I didn't think much of it. So, when Rob mentioned Travis over the phone, the picture of this 12 year old boy scout with this extra-wide, cheesy grin stuck out in my mind. Well, maybe it wouldn't be so bad...maybe he's nice. Sure, why not invite this famous "Travis"?

I'll let my journal entry tell what happened next: "We finally [met up] at Mi Ranchito, and I got to shake hands with Travis and introduce myself. And oh my goodness- the moment I saw him I knew I was in trouble!"

I really was in trouble...I was frustrated and disappointed in myself, not to mention depressed. I just couldn't like someone as wonderful as Travis-and talk about bad timing! I was headed up to Idaho the first week of May and wouldn't be back again until Christmas. How could I, who'd never been good at this kind of stuff anyway, strike something up that would last until then? It was depressing. So I decided from that moment on that I would NEVER reveal how I felt- no matter what, he couldn't know that I liked him. It would just make things awkward in our group of friends.

But we started hanging out more as a group and we got to know each other better. Travis will now say that he knew I liked him, but couldn't figure out for the life of him why I didn't make any moves, or even try to flirt with him. To put it plain and simple, I had no hope for "us". Yes, oh me of little faith. But then I left for Idaho, and he stayed behind, and we started e-mailing...then calling...then he'd ask me out on the weekend I'd be home visiting...then he'd come up to visit...and sent me roses for my birthday...and, well, it worked out! :) I finally came home for the winter and we were inseparable. I went up to Idaho again for one last semester, and then I was home for good! So after two years of dating, we were happily married and have been so for almost three years now. To commemorate this five-year mark, last Friday we went back to the restaurant where we met and reminisced. We also spent time together yesterday and went on a date to see to Harlem Globetrotters in Salt Lake. We had so much fun being together and reminiscing the road we took to get here.

My "Half Orange" Valentine

In Spanish, the phrase "You're my better half," is translated to, "You're my half orange". Pretty...unique! For Valentine's Day, I spent some time with my "media naranja".

We had a nice, candlelit, lasagna dinner which has become a Valentine's Day tradition since our dating years, and Travis completely surprised me by giving me a beautiful set of necklace and earrings! I'm extremely picky when it comes to jewelry, but he did an amazing job at picking out just what I would love. I also made my first cheesecake in honor of Valentine's Day. I've wanted to try making cheesecake for a while- so for Christmas Travis gave me a spring-form pan and a decorating tip set. We still haven't tasted it yet because we stuffed ourselves silly with lasagna, but we'll have to try it tonight. Hopefully it tastes okay!

Last weekend we also celebrated Valentine's Day by going to our stake dance with some friends. We had lots of fun and danced the night away!

I love my eternal Valentine. He truly is my better half! :)

You Know You're Exhausted When...

When people are utterly exhausted, sometimes even the littlest things will crack them up. I remember one such incident years ago...

I had just taken some NyQuil and was sitting at the table with my siblings enjoying dessert. One of my siblings had brought a little stuffed animal (a puppy, if I recall) to the table, and this puppy had one eye missing. I thought this was the most hilarious thing the world had ever known, and laughed and cried for several minutes. I finally had to excuse myself and go to bed.

Last night, Travis had an episode of pure exhaustion as we got ready to go to bed. He's been working so hard on homework and projects, that it's taken a toll on his sleep. We had just finished scriptures and were about to turn out the lights, when Travis suddenly said, "You know how some people go by their initials? I should go by mine..."

"T.A.?" I asked. (His full initials are T.V.A.)

"No, T.V.! Ha, ha, ha!!" and off he goes into another world where laughter abounds. He then reached over and put my hand on his chest. "Look, Wife! You're on T.V.!" And he's dying of laughter.

"Husband, you are sooo tired..."

"What? No way! If I was tired, would I be able to do this?" he jumps out of bed and does a little dance.

"Husband..."

"T.V.! Ha, ha, ha...!"

It was kind of cute. :) I sure hope he catches up on his sleep soon!

Happy New Year

We had a great Christmas and New Years, but alas, there are no pictures to show for it. But that's okay. If we did take pictures, it would just be us sitting, talking, and eating with family. That's pretty much what we did over the last two weeks. But, hey, what are the holidays for, anyway?

Travis and I spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with my family. My sister put together a wonderful program in which everyone participated. Growing up, our Christmas Eve programs were always full of food and were very musical since we all play at least one musical instrument. My sisters played their violins, my brothers and I played the piano (or flute, once I learned). Sometimes we'd put on a play like The Nativity or The Nutcracker (since we also have dancers in the family). We'd also sing "Feliz Navidad" and dance around like crazy. This year, we kept to our musical instruments and singing, but lost the play and "Feliz Navidad". But I'm sure we'll make up for it in years to come.

This was also the first Christmas without my brother, who is currently on a mission in Mexico. It was a little sad and different without him, but my sister was so sweet and thoughtful to write him earlier and ask him to send a recording of him bearing his testimony of the true meaning of Christmas. It was SO wonderful to hear his voice again; my mom was in tears! He had also, surprisingly, sent us his part in "The 12 Days of Christmas"! His part was always "four calling birds", whenever we'd get to his part, we'd just play his short recording on the computer. It felt like he was right there with us. The best part of Christmas, though, was actually being able to talk to Bridger on the phone. I can't believe he's been gone since July! He is doing a wonderful job in Mexico, and is learning so much.

The next week, we spent time with Travis's family. His brother, Devin, and his family were visiting from Texas, and it was so much fun spending time with them. I had the time of my life playing with their 3 year old, Katelyn- all their kids are so sweet and adorable. We also spent New Years Eve with the Andersons, and played games and ate tons of food. We stayed the night and then drove back down to my family's the next day for more food and games.

See, even if we had taken pictures, they would just be pictures of us stuffing our faces! It's probably for the best there's no physical evidence of that...