Chris and Bri were married in 2008. They both graduated from BYU, Chris is Manufacturing Engineering and Bri in Theatre Education. Chris works as a Manufacturing Engineer at Merit Medical and is currently getting his Master's Degree from BYU. Bri is lucky enough to stay home and take care of Jayde and their new baby girl Harper, the best and hardest job in the world! They are so blessed.
In the back of my head I remember being told that women can sometimes get bloated feet when they're pregnant. Its just a sign of water weight and will go down after the baby is born...but I guess I never really thought too much about it. Last weekend I could kind of feel my shoes getting a little too tight...and I don't wear shoes with laces, just the slip on kind. And then monday I looked down and saw this.
HOLY COW! Or should I say PIGGIES! HUGE FEET! Seriously, I couldn't get over how incredibly swollen they were. So, I immediately started putting my feet up at any moment possible. Sleeping that way is really not comfortable at all. Anyway...here's another update picture! I'm at 33 weeks now and just counting down the weeks/days until our little girl gets here! We're so incredibly excited! :)
Chris and I have lived in our apartment for over a year now and we've never had a problem with remembering our keys or leaving the door unlocked. Nothing! Until now.
Chris and I were leaving for church yesterday morning and as we walked out the door, I locked it, assuming as always that Chris had his keys and the car key. For the first time ever, Chris didn't have the keys! We were locked out of the house. If we'd had the car key, we probably would've just gone to church, but that was also in the house. To top it off, Chris was on call for the hospital so if he got a stat call he was definintely going to need to get in the house! We walked around our building and Chris discovered our kitchen window was unlocked, he just needed to remove the screen. So he knocked on our neighbor's door and borrow some pliers and luckily got the screen removed. He then crawled through the window into the kitched, locked the window (no leaving that open for any one thinking about breaking in) and then grabbed his stuff. We were only about 20 minutes late for sacrament meeting, just in time for the testimonies to start! haha.
It really wasn't a terrible experience, but it was a first for us! I'm not sure if it's better to have a spare key under your doormat...anyone could find it there! And I was also a little concerned about how easy it was to break in to our apartment. But what would they take? My ring? I wear that with me everywhere. And goodluck getting our TV out....lol. Anyway...now that I've revealed the secret to breaking into our apartment...please don't be tempted. :)
Not too much has happened since my last post, but a lot of what has happened is centered around our baby! :) We're unbelievably excited to be parents...scared out of our minds of course, but very excited at the same time. We'd been trying to have Chris feel her move for almost a month and then last wednesday, the 27th, he finally did! He thought it was me moving my stomach muscles...but of course, I don't have stomach muscles anymore! He was very excited to finally be able to feel her, I think it made it a little bit more real for him. I'm 25 weeks now...and I suddenly have a little bump. Haha. Still feel a little awkwardly chubby, but obviously that's starting to go away.
Chris is searching for an internship for this summer. We're hoping he'll find one in Utah, but if he has to go out of state, then that's what we'll do! :)
So... A friend of mine just did a post that was a quick summary/review of the things that happened in their family this past year. Seeing as I've been pretty bad at posting often...and we didn't start the blog til june or so...I thought it was an awesome idea! So...Here we go!
January-We quickly returned home from our Honeymoon and immediately jumped into classes and school responsibilities. Getting used to school and being married was fun.... haha
February-Still in classes...no spring break in sight. We were called as the Sunbeam Teachers in our ward and LOVED it.
March-Chris invented a new mouse attachment for those with arthritis and was asked to have the idea patented. We celebrated Chris's 24th birthday at Tucano's with Briana's brother and then soon to be step-mother who also have march birthdays all within a week!
April-School is finally over! Briana stopped working at the BYU Bookstore and got cast as the Sour Kangaroo in "Seussical the Musical" at the Sandy Amphitheatre.
May-Rehearsals and work took up quite a bit of time! Bri then got hired at Bath and Body works and LOVES IT!
June-Had a family reunion with the Chipman side in Spanish Fork Canyon. We didn't get to stay over night but liked playing games and hanging out!
July-Rehearsals and Work....with a little bit of family mixed in for the 4th. Can you see the pattern?
August-Briana's Dad was married in the Salt Lake Temple to Marsha just a week after the performances of "Seussical". It was an awesome month.
September-On Sept 3, we found out Briana was pregnant, due May 15th, 2010! But we had to keep it a secret until after Niki (Chris's sister) was married to John on the 12th, just so we didn't steal away from their excitement!We didn't mind at all. :) Also....classes started again. Blah. Everyone was thrilled when we got to share with them our wonderful news!
October-Briana performed in "Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" at the Castle Theatre in Provo. COLD! Rehearsals for that and a show with stage management responsibilities kept Briana insanely busy. Chris was of course busy with classes and work. On the 27th, we got to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time!
Novemeber-Couldn't wait until Thanksgiving. At our appointment for the baby this month the doctor couldn't find the baby's heartbeat for more than a couple seconds because it kept moving around! Very Active baby! Thanksgiving break finally came and was a welcome break.
December-Briana turned 22! So old. Then finally school was over again after a gruelling week of finals and final projects! We spent Christmas in St. George with Briana's family and then went to San Diego, California to be with Briana's Dad and Marsha. And best yet...on our 1-year wedding anniversary we went to A Baby Visit, a 3D ultrasound place, and found out our baby is a GIRL! :) We're so incredibly excited.
Now, of course I know I missed tons of stuff that happened and I should've been more diligent in posting. Like actually announcing that we're having a baby...haha. Well, this is my official announcement! :) Here's a couple pictures for your view pleasure.
So in case not everybody knows, I’m a manufacturing engineering major.That means when I go to class I usually learn about the really cool stuff and how to make things.Last semester I was in a plastics class and learned about… well, making things out of plastic!Cups, soda pop bottles, nerf footballs, trash bags… you get the idea.I even made a mouse griping pad for my mom so she could have better control over the movement of the computer mouse.
This semester, I’m doing a lot with metals.I have a machine shop class where I work with the REAL power tools (band saws, end mills, lathes, CNC milling machines etc…) and a metals processes class as well (where I do everything from casting metal to bending and welding.)So far in my machining class, we’ve made a hammer and a puzzle cube.The hammer, I made from “scratch” aka a straight piece of solid aluminum stock and a piece of nylon.For those of you who don’t want the process details, go a head and skip to the pictures, I won’t be offended ;-) for those of you who want to know the details of my hammer making, keep reading.
Unfortunately, I didn’t to a step by step picture journal on how the hammer looked at each stage of the game, so you’ll just have to use your imagination until we get to the finished product.
So when I first get to the machine shop, I had to cut the 12’ aluminum bar stock down to 12” so that it could become the hammer handle. That was done on the band saw.From there, everything else was done on a lathe.At the end where the handle connects to the hammer head, I turned it down to the right connecting size, then added the screw threads.Then I flipped it around to the handle side, turned it down to the right size and knurled it (I put diamond shaped impressions on it for better grip.) Then I shaped the middle part of the hammer.After the handle was done I made the hammer head, much by the same process.Then I screwed the two pieces together, and wa la! The final product! I also just made a puzzle cube.This is a tricky little thing since it actually can’t be solved.There’s a cube with pegs inside of a box frame.I made the box frame with the cube already inside so it’s impossible to get the cube out!
It was a lot of fun to make, after making sure that it was a true cube by using the end mill, I put it into two CNC (computer numeric control) machines, and told them to run their programs.So mostly I just sat back and watched.This one I did a little better job at getting WIP (work in progress) photos.
So you put it in the fadal, which is a CNC milling machine and it comes out like this. Then I put it in the punch EDM (electrical discharge machine) which cuts the metal using electricity - and it looks something like this.
When that gets done you have the finished product which looks like this.
A cube that is permanently stuck inside of its box frame! Tricky tricky :)
As most of you know, I'm in a musical at the Sandy Arts Guild. Which means I have rehearsals just about every weeknight in Sandy. It's kind of far and it means I leave Chris at home all by himself. But this week, Chris didn't have anything else going on at night so he came up with me, dropped me off at rehearsal and then went to his parents house to wait for me. Cathi (Chris's mom) was home all by herself until thursday because Larry and Bryson were off at Scout Camp (I think that's what it was). After rehearsal Chris would pick me up and then we'd go back to his parents house and play games!
Now, we are generally gameboard people but we discovered a new one that we absolutely love! I actually got it as a present from Chris's parents for my birthday last December and we had never played it! So we brought it! It's called Time's Up! Honestly...I think there could be a better name for it but it's amazingly fun! It's all about guessing famous people's name. You have teams of 2 or more people (it works best with even teams). You divide 40 cards with names on them between all the players and then 2 additional cards. Each player chooses 2 cards to discard and then the rest are put into the pile. Then you alternate teams with one player giving clues and the rest of the team guessing. Round 1: As many words as you want, sounds and gestures. Team members can guess as many times as they want. Round 2: Clue giver get 1 word, as many sounds and gestures as liked. Guessers get 1 guess. Round 3: No words. Sounds and gestures, only 1 guess! Every round is played with the same names so everyone is familiar with them. The game gets increasingly hilariuos as no words are allowed and it's just way fun! Dustin (chris's brother) and I are an amazing team. We'll take challengers! haha
So...as my Uncle Reed very nicely pointed out to me this past week, I have plent to write about on our blog! The only problem is, I don't find the time to actually write about it. I'll have to get better at that. I might just be worried about boring people...but I guess the purpose of this is to keep people updated with what's happening in our lives.
So, Chris and I bought a brand new bedroom set! It's beautiful. We found out about this store called Advantage Furniture in Sandy. I asked a friend of mine, Camee, who'd just gotten married and bought a new bedroom set and that's where they got theirs. This store rents the furniture to model homes and show rooms and stuff and then sells it, used, at a discounted price! So we got a great deal for furniture that doesn't look used at all! We had Dustin come with us, who graciously let us use his truck to drive it all the way back to Provo.
That same day about a week and a half ago was the Chipman Family Reunion. They went camping in Spanish Fork Canyon. Unfortunately, Chris was on call for the hospital that week and we couldn't stay the night there, but we spent a few hours during the day with them. It was nice to see family, even if it was just for a little bit. We've planned our schedules better for the next reunion we have planned the beginning of August.
Last Saturday was our 6th month anniversary! :) I know, what an amazing feat we've accomplished! Well, even if it wasn't something huge, we celebrated! We went to dinner at Panda Express (where we went for our first date) and then had tickets to see Hello! Dolly, at the Hale Center Theater in West Valley. It was really good! I'd never seen the show on stage before and it was really well done. I'm so grateful to have husband who enjoys theater just as much as I do, otherwise I don't know what I'd do! Go by myself? Sad. We also bought gifts for each other. An awesome new tie for Chris and and beautiful flirty apron for me!
This week we also got to see my Grandma! She's in town from Dubuque and is staying with my aunt Paula and uncle Reed for the month in South Jordan. We got to spend the afternoon and dinner with them before I had to go to rehearsal. Summer obviously means family, which is nice. :) Marissa, Vanessa and Carson (my siblings) were also all here this week. It was crazy having so many people living in our house for the week. Stuff everywhere...and definitely not enough space for people to sleep. But we had a good time.
Thursday we all got together, my siblings and Chris's, plus Heather, to go to Seven Peaks for the day! It was a lot of fun. We got there about 11:30 or so and spent the day riding water slides, making fun human chains in the lazy river and trying to jump the waves in the wave pool. It was overcast for most of the day and for a little while it was raining slightly...but we still managed to get sunburned! Its those days where you don't think you need sunscreen that get you. Luckily it wasn't too bad. I've definitely had worse.
Fourth of July wasn't too eventful. Chris worked security for Stadium of Fire and was the protection for Glenn Beck and his family. I had to work until 7 pm and then the rest of my family was either out of town or at Stadium of Fire watching! lol So I rented movies and stayed home. It actually wasn't too bad. I just missed the fireworks.
Well, I think that's it! Sorry it's so long. I'll update more often.
and it comes out like this.
Then I put it in the punch EDM (electrical discharge machine) which cuts the metal using electricity - and it looks something like this.
A cube that is permanently stuck inside of its box frame! Tricky tricky :)
Now, we are generally gameboard people but we discovered a new one that we absolutely love! I actually got it as a present from Chris's parents for my birthday last December and we had never played it! So we brought it! It's called Time's Up! Honestly...I think there could be a better name for it but it's amazingly fun! It's all about guessing famous people's name. You have teams of 2 or more people (it works best with even teams). You divide 40 cards with names on them between all the players and then 2 additional cards. Each player chooses 2 cards to discard and then the rest are put into the pile. Then you alternate teams with one player giving clues and the rest of the team guessing. Round 1: As many words as you want, sounds and gestures. Team members can guess as many times as they want. Round 2: Clue giver get 1 word, as many sounds and gestures as liked. Guessers get 1 guess. Round 3: No words. Sounds and gestures, only 1 guess! Every round is played with the same names so everyone is familiar with them. The game gets increasingly hilariuos as no words are allowed and it's just way fun! Dustin (chris's brother) and I are an amazing team. We'll take challengers! haha
e night there, but we spent a few hours during the day with them. It was nice to see family, even if it was just for a little bit. We've planned our schedules better for the next reunion we have planned the beginning of August.
water slides, making fun human chains in the lazy river and trying to jump the waves 
in the wave pool. It was overcast for most of the day and for a little while it was raining slightly...but we still managed to get sunburned! Its those days where you don't think you need sunscreen that get you. Luckily it wasn't too bad. I've definitely had worse.