Date Nights in May

As usual, I'm a bit behind, but I wanted to write a bit about some of the fun date nights Trevor and I have been on this month. Just enjoying that time we have together as a "childless couple". Oh freedom :)

For our anniversary, we went to the local Scera theater production of Annie. It was really cute and wonderful! :)

Date #1 - On May 7th, we were able to join Dave and Heidi in SLC for some good tepanyaki (perhaps spelled teppanyaki?) style food at Benihana Japanese Steakhouse! Ohh man was I ever craving this food! And I wasn't disappointed, although I still favor Kanki back in Raleigh :)
The pregnant ladies:
After dinner we wandered around Salt Lake City on foot until we found some dessert. It was just really fun (as usual) to get to spend some time with friends and travel to the "city" :)

Date #2 - Last Saturday the 21st we FINALLY had a pretty, warm day and so Trevor and I took off to Saratoga Springs (west of Lehi) so he could hit 9 holes at Talon's Cove at the twilight price. These pictures were taking around 6:30 pm. Can you believe how light it still is outside? This is why I LOVE summer!! The scenery was great with Utah Lake behind us, draped by the Wasatch Mountains.
About to take the swing...
You really gotta love how pretty it is... it makes me wish I had a wide-angle lens and a wider blog so I could blow up the pictures nice and big for you :) I might have to update to Wordpress soon, especially with all of the annoying issues with Blogger recently. It'd be worth the few dollars a year.

After golf we hit up the local Chili's restaurant. I'm definitely noticing an increase in my appetite as of the last couple weeks. Baby is ready to grow GROW GROW!

But yes. I ate a lot. And it didn't even hurt. ;)

I just love the chances I have to spend time with my husband. I'm glad we enjoy being together after 3 years of marriage. And the best part is things have gotten even more fun and easier as time has gone on! Can't wait to see where the future takes us! And I hope you're taking time to have fun date nights as well :D

Cohen's Second Birthday

Oh dear. I'm so behind on blogging. It's probably because (1) I never make time to do it and (2) Blogger has really been acting up lately. It deleted the first comments I got on my last post and it's totally messing up my boy/girl poll. I give up. Vote if you want but I have no idea if your vote will still be there tomorrow. What's the fun of having polls on your blog if they mess up?

Okay... ranting session over. But like I said, I'm a little behind. Trevor and I went to my nephew, Cohen's, birthday party on April 30th. I got a couple cute pictures so I thought I'd post them :) But you can see more pictures of the festivities on Meghan's blog here.

Anyway, the birthday boy was as cute and fun as ever. Here he is getting ready to blow out the candles on his cake. I've never really seen him act shy before, but he did seem a bit taken back by everyone standing around looking, singing, and cheering at him. His face below is priceless: happy, but not-so-sure:
But he was VERY happy to blow out his candles. And an expert, too! :) He got it easily in one try. And then he got to play with his new car and truck on the cake, which he was very excited about.
Anyway, it's always fun to do things with family. I'm always grateful for birthdays and other excuses to get together. Happy Birthday Cohen, little buddy! :)

Cast Your Votes!

Great news! Our 20 week ultrasound is scheduled for Friday, June 3, 2011 at 2:00pm MST. You have until that time to cast your vote as to whether we'll be having a boy or girl. Check out the poll over to the top right of the blog -->

We can't wait to find out!! We're so excited! :)

Vote vote vote!

Oh - and here's the 16 week picture:(Please pardon the awkward pose and huge-looking arm. It's hard to take these pictures without the help of Trevor, who was at the gym). :)

Catching Up...

I've been meaning to blog about this... but I kept forgetting after I posted our good news :)

Back on Monday, April 4th, Trevor and I had the chance to drive up to Park City (Deer Valley, really) to see my Aunt Kristen, Uncle Scott, and cousin Lauren who were visiting from South Carolina to go skiing before the awesome ski season was over. Aunt Kristen is my mom's sister (if you couldn't tell!) and it was SO great to see them because that really only happens once or twice a year if I'm lucky!

Anyway, we got to see the AWESOME house they were renting with some friends. It was exactly what you'd expect up in Deer Valley - made of large beams of wood, luxurious, and HUGE!! They just loved staying there and had to give us the tour when we arrived. There were even TWO indoor saunas in the basement!!!

We were able to go out to eat at the Riverhorse on Main street in Park City. I was extra excited about this because it's the restaurant Trevor and I were GOING to go to on Valentine's day before we got stuck driving in a blizzard for two hours...

Anyway, it was delicious - almost worth the price ;) But the company was grand and we even had a picture taken of all of us:You can tell they'd been skiing by the nice color on their faces. And Trevor, he's just lucky I guess. It makes me look like a pale ghost!! Eeek.

Anyway, we're excited to get to see them again in July when we go to the beach in NC!

In other news, I figured I'd update you with a 14 week picture taken last Tuesday on the way out the door to yoga. I'll be 15 weeks in just a couple more days. It's actually going by pretty fast, although overall it feels pretty slow. I know, that doesn't make sense, huh? Trust me, it's just weird :) Before I know it I'll have a little baby to take care of, and I'm SO excited. It still doesn't seem real (except for my pants not fitting) so I'm excited to continue growing and eventually feel the little baby move and find out if it's a boy or girl! Can't wait til June ;)Anyway, happy Sunday... and we just heard on the news that Osama bin Laden was found and killed. I think we all thought this day would NEVER come. Way to go USA! Now we just need to deal with all his angry, loyal, radical followers... we'll see how that goes.

Happy Easter 2011

Easter this year really was just wonderful. Although we didn't participate in tons of Easter season activities (like dyeing eggs and hunting for them), we really enjoyed the time we got to spend with family.

Playing it low-key, Trevor and I each got an Easter "basket" with a chocolate bunny:
So, it's not the most extravagant basket you've ever seen, but I'm telling you, that solid, dark chocolate bunny is the best I've ever purchased!! Yummm! Dove chocolate really is delicious!

I also continued with tradition and made my bunny cake this year:
No, it's not the best one I've ever done, but I still did it nonetheless :) For past bunny cake pictures, see here and here. After quickly icing the cake after church, Trevor and I stopped by Meg and Steve's house for dinner and to see the family for a couple hours, and then we traveled down to Elk Ridge to see Trev's parents for a couple more hours. We came home with only half of the bunny's round head left. I'd say we did pretty good! :)

Oh, and, another tradition, you've got to wear an Easter dress on Sunday, so here was the one I chose this year:
I'm guessing this is probably one of the last times I'll be able to wear this dress on Easter. I guess it just depends on how my body changes during pregnancy. ;)

Anyway, I really am so grateful for Easter and for the ability we have to remember that Christ was able to overcome the grave and rise again! He suffered and died for us, so that we might repent and live with Him again, and then he rose the third day. What a wonderful message for us all to remember throughout the year.

Also, I'd love for you to read the Easter message written by my wonderful missionary brother. It's on his blog, HERE.

Happy Easter!! I hope yours was wonderful as well :)

Dear Everyone (Version 2)...

Hi! It's me again!

So, you may remember my last letter I wrote on January 20th where I had kindly asked if you could all stop getting pregnant and having babies because I was having a difficult time watching everyone achieve what I had been hoping for for a while...

Well, I just wanted to let you know that you may resume your baby-making because Trevor and I are

proudly...

happily...

excitedly...

and successfully...


GOING TO HAVE A BABY! :)


I guess I should have been patient just a teeny bit longer :) We found out on February 20th (at almost 5 weeks) which means I am officially 12 weeks and 1 day along today!
That doctor's appointment I had and the medication I took worked miracles in the first month of trying! I'm so grateful for all of your prayers on our behalf and for the power of modern medicine!

Allow me to tell you a little bit about our adventure so far. Because I took Clomid, a fertility drug, for a month, I was able to have an early ultrasound soon after my 8 week doctor's appointment. Since the baby was so small, they couldn't hear the heartbeat using the hand-held dopplar and they couldn't quite tell if it was just one or if there might have been two (one's chances of multiples increases quite a bit when you take Clomid.)

Well, I was pretty sure it was just one because I hadn't been feeling very sick at all - just tired (ok make that exhausted) - and I just felt like one was the right number :) So, to make sure, we had an ultrasound. Please indulge in these next four pictures of our little bean:At 8 weeks and 2 days our "little bean" was just about 2 cm long! And yes, JUST ONE :)
You can sort of see where the head area is and also the umbilical cord!
Baby had a heartbeat of 166 beats per minute, which, by the way, we were able to both see AND hear! It was truly the most amazing part of my week!
Just a little blob of a fetus, I guess :)

Well the good news is that we're now 4 more weeks down the road since the ultrasound was done!! :) The doctor was easily able to hear the heartbeat (now 150 bpm) today with the hand-held dopplar and told me he thinks everything is going great!

Honestly, I've been so un-sick so far that sometimes I forget that I'm pregnant, or I worry that I don't feel "pregnant enough" (whatever that means). So, whenever I get a chance to hear that little heartbeat and remind myself that it IS real, I just get so excited :)

And yes, I've been documenting the belly a little bit. I'm really not showing too much, although my pants and I now have a love/hate relationship. Rubber bands have become my friend! And some days (and times of day) I'm WAY bigger than others. I think I just get food babies right now ;).

So now, if you're interested, please excuse my cheesy pregnancy belly pictures. Trevor says he's just not a fan, but I'm sorry, I have to document the belly (or lack thereof!):



Anyway, I again wanted to thank all of you for being so supportive for us. We had a rough year last year with Trevor being sick and with us just not being able to get pregnant. It was definitely hard, but looking back I'm realizing that God sometimes really does have impeccable timing. Again, I know many of you prayed for us and I really am so grateful for the miracles that God works every day.

We're definitely not taking this adventure for granted. We're loving every minute of it!

Oh - and because you're all dying to know...

Little bean is due October 25, 2011!!

Love,

Alex, Trevor, and "little bean" Shipp

Crazy Weather

I think Utah is still trying to decide if it IS, in fact, April, or if we are freakishly stuck in January. I mean, it IS spring now, right? And it has been for almost 3 weeks, right?

Well, it's April 9 and it's been snowing all morning (fortunately not really sticking this time!). But, that isn't all! Last Saturday, April 2nd was a GORGEOUS day... think of nice 70 degree weather and sunshine. Then, overnight, we got 5 inches of snow, and it continued to snow on and off all day Sunday. See, I have proof:Tree branches had fallen on cars because the snow was so heavy and unexpected. But, I will say it was a really gorgeous Sunday drive up to Elk Ridge to watch General Conference with Trevor's parents.

I felt bad for all the spring birds, though, as they all had no where to stand except the roads where the snow had melted. All of their nests and branches were covered in snow and too cold to stand on. So, we tried not to hit the hundreds of birds that were hanging out on the roads as we drove up to Elk Ridge. It was kind of creepy, actually. Think of Hitchcock's "The Birds"...

Spring weather, please come soon! I miss the warm and the sunshine!! And I have some really cute new shoes I'd like to wear.

Sincerely, Alex