Didericksen Family Pictures & David's Call

We took pictures with my family recently because my brother, Scott, just got back from his mission and is off to BYU and my other brother, David, is preparing to leave on a mission. This one is probably the best one out of the bunch.
The last two times we have taken pictures with my family I have been pregnant and this time I'm practically nine months pregnant. I guess I should have timed it a little better.

My brother David got his mission call on Friday, so it is a good thing we got those pictures taken. He has been called to the Fresno, California mission and reports to the MTC November 18th. We are super excited for him and know that he will be a great missionary.

Astros Game

Thanks to the G. family, we were able to attend an Astros game. Sarah's dad used his frequent flyer miles to get a suite and it was definitely sweet!

We had awesome seats, lots of yummy food and all the soda and water we wanted.

We even got ice cream in that hat Alyssa is wearing on her head. Needless to say, we ate way too much.
Alyssa absolutely loved the game. She barely wanted to leave her seat on daddy's lap to go and get ice cream. I don't think she understood what was going on in the game, but she wanted to be right in on the action.

After games held on Friday nights, they open up the roof of the stadium and blast off fireworks. It was a pretty good show and they played music in tribute to Michael Jackson.

One More Month of Pregnancy & Elder Didericksen Returns

I know that now I have less than three weeks until my due date, but I had Jesse take a profile shot at exactly one month before and am just now getting to posting it.

Getting close to looking like I'm about to pop. I definitely like black maternity shirts. From the front you don't look so huge.

My first bread making experience using my own home ground wheat (Thanks mom and dad for that wheat grinder for Christmas--we didn't get to take it back to Provo so I'm just now getting around to using it). This is half white flour half wheat flour. It turned out pretty good and I recently made two more 100% whole wheat loaves which turned out pretty good as well.

My brother Scott just returned from his mission in Brazil. He served in the Cuiaba mission until the very end when they switched him to the Manaus mission. He already headed back to BYU, so he had to adjust to being back in the states pretty quickly.

This is what Scott brought us back from Brazil. It is pretty sweet having a hammock in our back yard. Jesse especially likes to use it while talking to his family. I think Alyssa has spent the most time in it she gets in it with either of us and has been in it by herself as well. Scott also brought us home some T-shirts and Alyssa got some shorts as well. We'll have to take some pictures in them.

Potty Trained

Well I believe Alyssa is officially potty trained. We started about a month ago and she had it down in about a week. She is still wearing training pants at night, but most of the time wakes up dry or comes and gets me in the middle of the night needing to go. The first day was really rough for me because she really didn't understand the concept and she had lots of accidents. She pretty much had #1 down after the first day, but #2 took a few more days. M&m's and popscicles definitely worked for Alyssa. Now, hopefully she doesn't regress at all after the baby is born. It is so nice to be done with diapers, but I guess it is only for a little over a month.

4th Anniversary!

Today is our four year anniversary. So I thought I would post some reminiscent pictures. Jesse woke up this morning sick and ended up throwing up, so not such a fun day for him. At least we got to go to the temple yesterday to celebrate.

Here we are on the front steps of the temple with everyone that was there.


Flicking the garter. This was actually a few days after our wedding day at our reception in Ponca.

Stuffing each others faces with cake. We weren't super nice to each other, but it was definitely fun.
I can't believe that we have already been married for four years. Time flies by so fast. I'm so glad to be sealed forever to a wonderful husband. It has been a fabulous four years.

The Past Couple Months

I know, I know, I have been terrible about updating the blog. I had lots of pictures to put up, but I didn't have the right cord for the camera and I figured it would be easier to put the pictures on our own computer. Once we got moved into our house, we've just seemed to be really busy. I started this post over a week ago and haven't had a chance to finish. I don't know how we did it when we were in school. I stay at home and feel like I don't have time to do anything. Maybe I'll catch up eventually. Here are some pictures that are pretty old now. I'll have to do another post soon with some more pictures.

Since we didn't actually attend graduation, we figured we ought to atleast get pictures in the gowns. Thanks to Tawna for letting us borrow your gowns and taking our pictures for us. We appreciate it.

Somehow Alyssa came up with the idea of using my hair as her moustache. She would pull my hair up to her face and say look at my moustache. I helped her for the pictures.

Both of us with moustaches.

For playgroup, we went to a children's museum. We went with Sarah and Parker G. and Collin came with us as well. This was the first ward playgroup that we went to and we never found anyone in our ward there.

Alyssa playing in the sand at the children's museum. The kids had a great time and didn't want to leave. I needed lunch so I finally got them to go.

Alyssa swimming in the new pool that grandma D. got for her. It even has a cool slide. I think this pool helped her warm up to the idea of swimming again because before she got in her pool she refused to swim in any real pools. She will now swim in real pools again.

Playing with the golf balls in the pool.

This is the bed that Jesse made for Alyssa with Alyssa in it pretending to sleep. He plans on making a second one for the baby. Even though she won't need it for a while, he'll probably make another before his family comes out for Christmas so one of his lucky siblings will be able to sleep in it. Now I just need to find bedspreads for them.

Another project we worked on. I sanded down the bookcase and then Jesse painted it white along with the bed. We have many more projects ahead of us that we have started or will be starting soon. We will have to document them.

I realized that I haven't taken any belly shots. I've been meaning to do this for awhile, but just hadn't done it. This is me at 30 weeks, looking decently big. I'm definitely bigger than I was with Alyssa, but I don't feel huge so that is nice. You can also see the blue paint that we used to paint the family room and kitchen. We also got new couches, but I might wait and take a picture of the family room when it is all done. We definitely have a ways to go. The only room that is pretty much finished is the nursery and it still needs some finishing touches.

We Bought A House!

Well, we closed on our home and moved in. We still have junk all over the place and are trying to get it unpacked, but we are here. I don't know how many people Katie has told, but for those of you wondering here are the stats of our home that is way too big.

Bedrooms: 5

Bathrooms: 3

Other rooms: Living, Dining, Kitchen, Breakfast area, den, laundry, game room.

Garage: 2 car attached

Square Footage: way too much (the plan is to grow into this one in the next 5-10 years)

attached are a couple of videos of the home. The first one is the quick version for those of you who are pressed for time.

Just in case that wasn't good enough for you here is the longer version.

Well, we're excited to have our own space now, and feeling more and more permanent every day. My job is going well, and we have some friends and family close by. Katie is due to have the baby on September 18th. We think we have decided on the name Brianna Lynn. Alyssa is pretty excited to have a baby sister. That's about it for a quick update. Hopefully Katie gets on here soon and posts what is going on in more detail.