and...more pictures

Cru fell sleep on my lap last night and his leg's were crossed. It was so cute!
Cru...rocking out with his skull candy head phones (thanks fuzz) 
and Cru is finally enjoying tummy...sort of
We are off to California on friday for 16 days and we are so excited! We'll try to post while we are out there! Hope everyone has a merry christmas and a happy  new year! 

Picture Update!!!

okay...here's some pictures from the last month! 

Cru got to sit on Santa's lap for the first time at the ward party!  (thanks David! You were an excellent Santa!)
Cru had his first experience of of flirting at the ward party. JaNae was holding him when Kate and Candace came up to play with his hands. He LOVED it. Candace came back after they left and said "Bye Screw". I hope it's the last time he's called that! 
Cru and Andrew Arnold hanging out at the Stake Dinner at Aspen Grove in Sundance. It was so nice to have them sleeping and hanging out. 
We were SO lucky to have our favorite family come visit! The McClintocks came out from Missouri to visit Heidi's family for thanksgiving and we got a taste! It was so fun to see them, see how big Luke is and meet Chloe for the first time! 

CRU

alright, Cru had his 3 week birthday yesterday! We tortured him on Monday with a little sniperooney, a PKU test and an x-ray. The good thing out of that day was that his air pockets are all gone and we have no more x-rays to get! (phew). and we found out that Cru is growing very well and eating better than some people thought. He was 9 lb 9 oz on Monday and now 22 inches long. He basically could squash any of the other new baby's at church, even though half of them are older than him!

Cru is looking cuter and cuter everyday! I love it. He does the funniest things with his face which everyone in my family will admit to also doing! His hair is blonde and his eyes are blue for now. Shad and I are having so much fun with him!

I went back to school on the 7th so it's been a juggling act getting ready for school every morning, feeding Cru (or pumping for food later) getting Cru ready and taking him to kind friends houses to watch him when Shad can't. But it's working out and we only have 3 more weeks of it. Sadly I'll then be going back to work on the 9th :(

Everyone's been asking for more pictures so here's a few! Enjoy!

Ps, in the pictures Shad got him the I heart NY outfit while he was there this summer. So we had to take pictures of him wearing it.

shout out

Shad has shot the Redline Bicycle Catalog for the last 2 years and they gave us a little shout out on their website:  http://www.redlinebicycles.com/freestyle/index.html

Also Cru is doing a lot better. We will have x-ray's done soon to check on the air pockets but the doctors assume they will go away on their own. His Bilirubin is all gone and he's been off the lights for 1 week and we couldn't be happier! We love learning all the fun little things that Cru likes and dislikes and we've learned a lot about parenting in these last 16 days!

Here are a few random photos that I recently took of Cru. Enjoy!

Introducing....

Cru Acel Hopkins

Born Tuesday, October 28th at 5:46pm

Weighing in at.... ready for this?! 8lb 15.4oz / 21 and 1/2 inch long!

Cru had a few complications coming out and a few more once he came out into the world. He was born with a Pneumothorax which is an air pocket in the lungs. His was on both sides of his lungs in between his lungs and his rib cage. He also had one around his heart. They kept him in the Nursery the whole time we were in the hospital (tuesday until friday) and I got discharged on Thursday but decided to pay the hospital to stay with him until he was discharged. As of friday when we left the air pockets were gone except for the one around the heart which they say will eventually just leave on it's own. We'll get more x-ray's in a week or so. On Wednesday afternoon Cru developed Bilirubin which is Jaundice so he was kept under special lights until us leaving. When we were discharged friday the hospital sent over someone to bring us special lights that Cru is supposed to live under until his bilirubin level has gone down to normal. (Poor guy really doesn't like living under these lights!) We will be getting blood tests done daily until then.

Although it was all a bit complicated, we are SOO glad to have Cru here. We feel so blessed that everyone has been so excited to welcome Cru into this world. And we feel so blessed that we had amazing Doctor's that were able to prevent a C-section and hospital staff that were all able to help Cru continue to get better! Orem Community Hospital had the most amazing and helpful staff and doctors. We are so grateful for everyone's prayers, love, support, and help.

Enjoy the pictures...sorry there are not a ton, but it was pretty hectic for a while so we didn't take many. (and he had not so pretty tubes, IV's, monitors, etc. on him for a while. But we do know he's amazingly strong because he ripped out the IV from his hand...hence the IV in his head!)

deadline!

http://www.nbc.com/The_Office/video/episodes/?vid=767161#vid=767161

well, we are getting down to the wire, so in order to prepare ourselves we watched an episode of the office. Dwight and Michael really helped us feel at ease! check it out.

Oh, and it's just the first minute and a half...

Pumpkin Carving Enrichment

Last night for enrichment we carved pumpkins! When we were at St.George someone had a Better Home and Garden magazine that had the cutest idea's....



so I set out on a mission to find a "corer" to do this polka dot pumpkin carving! And mine was fine until...the polka dots started falling INTO the pumpkin! So probably this weekend I'll gut the pumpkin and save the polka dots and find a way to attach them so they don't fall in again. I was waiting to gut it until closer to Halloween. But I had fun doing it anyway! Maybe I'll still buy a white pumpkin and try that! Well, here's my attempt at copying Better Homes and Gardens!





Oh and I made a good dessert for the activity...I've only been waiting a YEAR to make it so I'm glad it turned out!

PS, I'm on fall break from school, that's why I'm actually posting lately! It's so nice! Sorry Shad, no fall break for you! It's kind of giving me a taste of what life will be like in January....(I hope I'm more productive than this!)

And his name is...

Okay, so I'm not really going to spill the beans and tell you the name we have picked out. That would just make this whole ordeal of keeping a secret for 9 months pointless! And we're on the home stretch so I think I can hold it in for a few more weeks ;) But I did tell Shad that we are not doing this again! 

But I would love to know if any of you have ideas of what the name is. I know our friend Sean spent time on the internet looking after we gave him clues. Sorry I can't give everyone clue's but if any of you have ideas we'd love to hear them! 

3 weeks left!

I feel like I should be blogging more but I'm struggling finding the time, the energy, and something exciting to write about. Granted, I am pregnant so that's exciting enough some might say...but I feel like it's been 9 months and nobody really wants to hear about my pregnancy all the time! I don't even want to hear about it all the time! he he. And it's a little hard these days to focus on my pregnancy when I'm still going to school and working among other things!

So we are down to our appointments every week which is such a bore! I hate it. But it must be done. We have exactly 3 weeks left and we are both very excited. I am noticing Shad being more excited lately. We went to St.George last weekend and met my parents there to visit my grandma and also picked up our crib from my parents. As soon as we got home Shad wanted to put it together. So that made me happy. We already had bought the changing table and baskets to match, the bedding and I got my diaper bag a few weeks ago. (I was on cloud 9 after we bought it...I still am when I think about it and look at it!) Oh and our rocking chair is coming in the mail today! I am very excited about that! It is so comfy!

ps, this picture was just taken from my cell phone...just to let people see...but what some of you can't really see is the cute little fish on the bedding!

We are so excited to have our little ______ (insert name here) come into our lives in a few short weeks! We will post asap when we have him.

shad went to his first BYU football game

I had the chance to go to a BYU football game. It was so much fun to actually be there instead of watching it on TV. It's amazing the energy inside the LaVell Edwards Stadium. Every time that BYU scored a touchdown, I got the goosebumps. This photo is proof that I don't like my picture taken.

Grandma Maygren

Carly's grandma, Pearl "Dixie" Maygren passed away on August 30th, 2008. These were the last pictures we took with her, last Christmas. We saw her in May when we went home but didn't take any pictures.  

Carly and Grandma 
Grandma and Landon (Hallie's baby) 
And this is grandma's care taker with Lily. She is the sweetest lady and she will also be missed. 

Grandma made the best banana bread (I'll post the recipe on the recipe blog) and yummy home made chex party mix at chirstmas time. She was such a great cook and loved to be with family. She will be missed. But we all know that she is in a much better place where she can be with her husband, her daughter (Carly's Aunt Jeanine who died of Breast Cancer) and her 7 other siblings again. 

BIG NEWS

I can't believe I forgot to post this! But we found out last friday (August 15th) that Shad was accepted into the Bachelor of Fine Arts - Photography Program at BYU. I know this might confuse some of you (dad included!) but last year Shad was accepted into the Photography Program which would give him a Bachelor of Arts in Photography when he graduates. But a BFA is so much better! (and requires so much more work / time / money in the future) but we felt it would be better for his career. So Shad worked diligently all summer ;) on his portfolio to show his professors his best work! He printed them, mounted them, and we bought a pretty box to show them in (that also cost a pretty penny). I'd like to say it was a joint effort...but Shad's the one with the talent so basically I was good at cutting, driving, motivating, typing, and praying! But I'm so proud of Shad and all he's accomplished. He's worked really hard since we've been married to 1) get to BYU (even though I wasn't to happy about the idea!) 2) get into the photography program 3) get into the BFA program 4)impress me every time he takes a picture 5) make a good amount of money by taking pictures and selling them which has helped us out so much financially! 

So congrats Shad! I am so proud of you! 

P.S. if  any of you want to congratulate shad....do it on HIS photography blog! That would just be so much better! shadhopkinsphotography.blogspot.com 

what a week!

well...we've had quite a week of simple events and big events. Phil, Summer, and Vienn finally arrived to Utah on Monday and stayed with us a night and on tuesday we helped (shad really...not me!) them move into their new Wymount apt! I think we did a really good job at making these apartments sound bad because they were quite pleasantly surprised! he he.

 

We started our hypnobirthing class and had our second one this week. Shad and I are both really enjoying it! (thanks heidi and jen!) 

 

We really can't complain to much about pregnancy stuff. We've been both really blessed with our miracle baby! Blessed to be pregnant in the first place most of all! But then to not have gotten sick at all...that is another great blessing. So basically I feel bad complaining about the little aches and pains that I'm starting to feel a little and I'm afraid I've spoiled Shad :) (love you!) 

 

And! We helped another move yesterday! Riley and Breanne bought a place to live in West Jordan so we were up there yesterday from about 11am until about 11pm! Their new home is so cute! I just love all the closets! Most people take those little things for granted (closets that is) until you live in Wymount! And Shad impressed us all with his all his little "fix it's". I just can't list them all! I  was so proud! 

 

Last night while at Riley and Breanne's someone backed into our car. I wasn't too upset because...Well, it's not my favorite car (sorry mom and dad!) because Shad impressed me with a newer one he brought into the marriage!. (thanks vince and dannette!) But I've had it since high school and it's been a great car and now days it gets great gas mileage compared to our 4-runner. But I was thankful that we had driven it instead of our 4-runner. We were parked on the street in front of a house so we figured the people's house we were in front of, they had backed into it. Shad knocked on their door and asked and they were not nice people and halfway admitted it. It turned into a very long night after that. This morning I've been trying to figure out what we are supposed to learn from it. It could just be patience. Or maybe we need to be more grateful for what blessing's we do have because I feel like we've gotten a lot lately. I'm not positive yet...but I'm sure it's something good we'll get out of it! 

 

That's our week in a nut shell! In case anyone was sitting at home, twiddling their thumbs and thinking "I wonder what the hopkins did this week...." 

Happy Anniversary

It's amazing to think that we've been married for 4 years! We have had life experiences that we will always remember, some good...some bad! But we've had them all together. We've also had many life plans that have changed and some unexpected ones. We love where we are at in life right now, expecting our first baby and finishing up school. We love being able to live here at Wymount and have this amazing chapter in our lives! 

I am so glad that 4 years and 8 months ago Shad called me and asked me out! I would never take back any of our dates: watching him take pictures for the college newspaper, watching him ride his bike, or watching him take pictures of other people riding their bike! I just had to be around him and that's still how it is today! 

bmx plus magazine

Shad got another front cover of BMX Plus Magazine! So go check out the newest issue...I think it'll be September!

happy birthday emily ferons!

Tuesday, July 15th was Emily's birthday! I'm so glad to have a friend like her and I'm so thankful that she lives in my stairwell! I don't know what we would do with out the Ferons! On Monday JaNae and I decided to surprise Emily and take her out to desert! We set it up with Sean and we the "birthday bandits" kidnapped her and took her to Mimi's Cafe! It was a lot of fun and quite delicious. All day at work I kept looking at their website eyeing the apple cobler I was going to order! Here's the pictures: (one's sideways...I know!)

Then on Emily's birthday Sean took her out for a surprise date and asked me to babysit Heidi! We had a good time (well, once she got over the fact that her parents were missing and she stopped hitting her head on the door!) and I caught this picture of her laughing on my cell phone. I know it's not that good but she looked so cute running around, laughing and hiding from me! 
 

LexisNexis Owlz Game

My work decided to take everyone to the Orem Owlz Baseball Game on Friday Night. It was a lot of fun. Shad couldn't go, the poor guy had to go to New York (I know, I feel really sorry for him too!). They fed us an all you can eat bbq and we had a raffle and then we went and watched the game. We were all really excited about the raffle, there were some pretty good prizes and some ok prizes. I won a $15 gift card to Jamba Juice (which I don't love) and then right afterward Dallin won a $25 gift card to Olive Garden (which he doesn' t love and I do!) so we switched! I was very excited after that. And Chelsea got a LexisNexis fleece which we've both wanted since we started working there! I was very jealous!
Chelsea and Jacoby
Dallin and Jessica (Dallin and I started together at LN)
Chelsea and I - I would die at LN without Chels!
Dallin, Chelsea and Me This is our Supervisor Angie. She is so much fun! We LOVE her!

Farewell Hobbs!

A few months back, our stairwell (Ferons, Reisers, Hobbs, and us) decided to do a joint Family Home Evening every other week. We rotated assignments and it was a lot of fun. But...then the Hobbs decided to leave us. We are still sad about it. In celebration of their departure we had a fun filled FHE up at Rock Canyon Park. We bbq'd and played baseball. It was a lot of fun. We miss you Jeris and Suzanna! 

                                               JaNae....playing baseball...or modeling 
Suzanna playing! 
Emily pitching for Sean
Sean looking real intense! 
The Wymount 10B stairwell! (Shad, Carly, Suzzana, Jeris, Heidi, JaNae, Emily, Matt, and Sean!) 

Shad's video

So in May Shad decided that he really couldn't handle his boring job anymore at BYU Central Stores and talked to his brother Rudd and our neighbor Sean who both worked for KBYU. Shad eventually got hired on to film there and has enjoyed it so far. About the same time he had started to talking to Bryan Niven, a photographer in the area about assisting for him. Bryan tried him out and liked Shad so now he assists on Bryan's photo shoots and creates video's of the photo shoot / picture making process for Bryan's blog. (http://www.bryanniven.com/blog/) We would love everyone to check out the new video shad did for Bryan and also check out Bryan's work. We think he is very talented...not your average photographer. If you go to his blog click on the latest entry about Nate's photoshoot. In the list of things that he's been doing you can click on the word "video" and it will take you to the youtube site for the video. I thought about just putting up the youtube video on our blog but I'd really rather everyone go through Bryan's blog so you can check out his work.

I love both of Shad's new jobs because he enjoy's both of them. Especially working with Bryan. Shad's the happiest right before, during, and after one of Bryan's photo shoots! So congrats Shad!

Our trip to California

Bryce is always doing something funny...here's proof!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

While on our trip we got to see some friends, go to San Diego for a job, visit yogurt express (love it!), hang out with our families, eat good food, go to the beach, and relax! We had a lot of fun. Too bad we can't visit more often!

sprouts!!!

About a week and a half ago, for Enrichment we were taught about plants and herbs and then we got to plant some herbs to take home. I planted Cilantro, Rosemary, and Basil. And yesterday I was so excited to see my little sprouts coming out of my Cilantro! I just had to take a picture and share with everyone! I think Shad got a little excited too, even though he would never admit that! So all the watering and sunlight is starting to pay off! 

blogging!

For Enrichment last night, Michelle Gardner taught us how to blog. I learned a lot even though I already blog. There are so many things about blogging I didn't know how to do and she taught us how to create your own template and back drop! I'm excited to spend countless hours trying to figure all this out! But Michelle also gave us a quote that I really liked - 

At a BYU Hawaii Graduation, Elder Ballard encouraged students to "consider sharing their views on blogs, responding to online news reports and using the "new media" in other ways, share their views through blogging." Because "we cannot stand on the sidelines while others, including our critics, attempt to define what the Church teaches," he said. He went on to say that "perceptions of the Church are established one conversation at a time..." and that Church leaders "can’t answer every question, satisfy every inquiry and respond to every inaccuracy that exists," due to recent media coverage and inquiries. Just remember, “there is no need to become defensive or belligerent,” in our blogging.
I really liked that we can use our blogging for good, besides sharing our life experiences with those we don't see or talk to all the time, we can also share our testimony and share the gospel of Jesus Christ and use our blog to do good.

it's a boy!

So I'd love to be a sneaky sly little villain but I'm not. But I did get close. At my last appointment (my 14 week which was really 15 weeks because I was a week behind) I thought I'd ask for another ultra sound (I also kind of knew that around 16 weeks they can see the gender) and I told them I just wanted a better picture of my baby than the one I have currently from 6 weeks! And my doctor said "didn't  you get one at your 10 week appointment?" So it turns out I was supposed to but the ultra sound technician wasn't in on thursdays. Anyway, my doctor said I could go to the front desk and make an appointment for the next week and I wouldn't have to pay anything extra. (at 16 weeks you can pay $50 for a gender check) I was so excited. And it was the day before our trip to California so I was even more excited about that! So here are the latest pictures of our baby! 

Apparently he was curled up in a ball with his chin to his chest and wouldn't move out of that position. funny thing about that is I used to sleep all curled up in a ball...ask my mom. or even shad, he's seen me do it! 
Drum roll please......and it's a boy! I was not surprised at all. I have had a few dreams that it was a boy and I even had one the night before the ultra sound. Which is quite odd for me, I've never had dreams that were like predicting things. But it was very cool. 
And one last picture of our little boy. The technician took like 10 pictures of him in this same position...kind of boring but still cute! 
So there! Next thursday is our 20 week ultra sound appointment which we are excited for. And just so everyone knows (most of you do already...) we do have a name picked out but we are not sharing the name until he's born. Lets see if we can keep a secret. More like, lets see if Carly can keep a secret :)