Nicki Tribute -- 16 Weeks

We are 16 weeks along.  The time seems to have gone quickly, but I'm sure Nicki has felt otherwise.  Here's my beautiful wife sportin' a little bump.

I don't know if we will always post these "progress" pictures, but I needed a picture for this post.  And, I think she looks amazing in this one.

My main purpose here, however, is to talk about Nicki.  As pregnancy is for most women, this hasn't been easy for Nicki.  I'm certain other women have had it worse, but Nicki has had her struggles too.  Through all of this, she has almost never complained.  I find that almost mind-blowing.  I can barely make it an hour into a day without complaining about something.  She has done this so well in fact, that I think "enduring well" aptly describes her.  

She has consistently worked 10 hour shifts, cooked meals, cleaned the house, and just plain took care of business.  One small anecdote.  Nicki came home at 3 AM following a 10 hour shift at the hospital.  I got up at 6 for work, waking her and disturbing her much needed sleep.  As I left, I could tell she was struggling with the nausea as well as trying to get back to sleep.  Fast forward through work, I came home to find dinner on and the house clean.  Nicki wasn't feeling good, but felt she just needed to get stuff done.  Amazing, simply amazing!

Without a doubt, I'm getting spoiled.  Simply put, Nicki is incredible.

Rappelling at Great Falls

Dustin here.  I thought I'd share some of our recent activities especially since this is one of my favorite past times.

At the end of May, we went to Great Falls with Nicki's family to do some rappelling.  The river was really high making some spots inaccessible.  But, we were able to find a decent spot and set things up.

I want to note, before I get into the pictures, that this event was particularly important because we needed to introduce Li'l D to such an important Hinton family tradition.  With such an early start, Li'l D will no doubt carry on this family tradition.

 Nicki's a natural and was the first one down.  Once again, she aptly demonstrates one more reason why I love her so much.

 There might not be anything quite as comfortable as the tight, diaper-like fit of a rappelling harness.

 Carter and me shooting the breeze.  Carter's skill in this area are also really solid, not to mention the entire Shepherd family.

 Dad Shepherd makin' sure everything's goin' smooth while Nicki triumphantly returns.  We definitely had a good time, and we most certainly will be doing this often.

What we do to entertain ourselves

A week or so ago on a Thursday night Dustin and I wanted to get out and so we thought we'd go buy some sidewalk chalk and have some fun outside. Dustin made an awesome hopscotch that you see here.   

 Dustin showing off his mad skills at superhuman speed.

 and then he found a flower and though he'd give it to me. He's so thoughtful!

 Here are some of our drawings. We thought it was funny that the killer bunny was almost as big as our house. But just for the record we don't plan on having a pink house, it just showed up really easily on the sidewalk.

 And then we did a collage about us with our names. As you can see we're both super artistic and talented at drawing things. I was impressed that Dustin could draw the DC Temple. You see my attempt at drawing Batman and a basketball for Dustin. And then of course Dustin and I tried to draw a baby carriage for our little one on the way. We like to call the baby "Little D" of course the name was picked out by Dustin. The funny thing about this is I'm sure most of you know by now that we're expecting, most of it came out after Jessica and Carter's wedding. But I'm 13 weeks so far and doing pretty well. We had an ultrasound confirming everything looks great and that there was just one baby. Yeah! We're due at the end of November and super excited! I think I'm currently more excited to just feel awesome again, but I'm sure once my pouch actually starts to feel like a baby it will be more exciting too. Hopefully! Here's to the greatest adventure of all!!

One Year Down!!

Ok, so the title is so not true, this past year of marriage for us has been absolutely amazing. It has flown by and we are amazed by all we've learned and how we've grown to rely on each other and how absolutely fabulous marriage has been. It has been amazing to wake up to your best friend each day to share in the laughs and the hard times, but to know that you don't have to face things alone. I am amazed by how Dustin is constantly positive and so determined to make me smile no matter how tired, or sick I might be he still gets me to smile every day! Now that is a blessing!!  

So this last week was our one year anniversary and it was fun to be able to celebrate a little early with Jessica and Carter's wedding and see family and feel like we were getting married all over again, reflecting on the fact that just one year ago it was us in the same temple surrounded by loved ones and family, we just missed having Dustin's family there too to share it with us. 

But last week our anniversary was on Sunday so we decided to go out to dinner Saturday night at the Thai restaurant on the lake by our house. So when I got home from work that day I came home to flowers, and a clean house and a husband ready to go. He let me get cleaned up and we walked to the lake and had some great food. The restaurant was super slow but again good. It was a beautiful day and then we went and walked around the lake and outside for awhile. Then we went home and pulled out the mattresses into the front room and had a sleepover and watched the end of "Muppet's Treasure Island" which I insisted Dustin watch earlier in the week but I fell asleep and so we didn't finish, and then the "Secretariet" which was fabulous and we highly recommend. Then Dustin was so sweet that he asked if I wanted to hear some bedtime stories before we went to bed. So he went to the computer and pushed play. He had recorded some "stories" he had written from our adventures the past year and told them in the format of a fairy tale. It was super sweet and I'm excited that we can have them always!!  

Then on Sunday we of course had nursery and then we went to my parents house for some "Cafe Rio" and to spend time with family. It was a great weekend!! 

Here we are walking around Lake Anne, which is now our favorite place to go walking by our house now. 

 Waiting for the food, see Dustin even makes me laugh when I'm hungry and want to eat!!

 Trying to show off my modeling skills. We passed a girl having a "photo shoot" at the sand volleyball courts by our house in her bikini and I was showing that I could be hot too.

 Dustin showing off his mad modeling skills as well. He's so great!!

We can't wait for the rest of eternity to laugh and have fun together!!!

Being Domestic

So Dustin and I decided that it was about time for us to try and start our "garden". But unfortunately we have very little sunlight on our porch and in our house, so we decided to try and get some partial shade plants and see how they did, try to keep it simple since I have a tendency to kill any plants I own. Not on purpose I tell you, but no green thumb here that is for sure. 

However, I would like to post my first success story that almost ended in tragedy this week. We have a plant that my dad gave me for my birthday last year. There were two plants in the pot, but one died of course, but however, this little guy is a trooper. I am pretty sure I water it about every other week if he is lucky, and then  how he gets sun I don't know, but he still has been doing great. So after we planted our "garden" we decided that it was time for this little guy to get some sun and thrive so we put him out on the porch with the rest of the plants. A couple hours later he was almost dead and wilted and very very sad looking. Apparently he doesn't like sun, so we brought him in and the next day he looked all perked up! Now that is my kind of plant! 

 Here is our "garden". We planted basil, mint and parsley. We tied the plants on the outside to try and get some sun for them, we just hope it works!!  Because I sure love some fresh basil. And if this works who knows the possibilities 

Run Amok

On April 30th Jess and Dustin wanted to run a race and so we decided to do the DC RUN AMOK race. I worked the night before and so David ran with Dustin for me, and Carter was working, so Dad gladly filled in. It is a 5k race where you have to run through mud pits. This was our first year doing it and we for sure want to do it again, but we learned that it is better to run earlier in the day rather than later since the mud pits got extremely hard to get through and you had to crawl. Dad got stuck and was rolling around declaring he was a "Stuck Waterbuffalo" and it took 4 people to help pull him up. Next lesson learned, register in January, it is MUCH cheaper. 

So I tried to take pictures, but they ran around a lake so it made it impossible for me to be able to keep up and take pictures throughout the whole race, but there were obstacles and rope courses, and all sorts of mud pits they crawled through. Here is Jessica excited about the race.

 Clean and ready to go!!

 Ready set go!! We were particularly proud of Dad for running the race since he hadn't run for awhile, but went gladly and everyone kept up with him so they could go through the obstacles together.

 Here they are coming towards the very end! Yes, that is a huge mud pit they have to crawl through. Notice the ropes on top forcing you to get low....

 Taking the plung!

 David slipped and went in head first, so of course at the end Dustin wanted to make sure he did the same.....

 David pulling Dustin to the finish....they look like statues or something

 Jessica trying to help the waterbuffalo out of the mud

 Swing dancing in the mud

 And sliding into the finish!!

 The end result....as you can see by Dustin's face....lesson learned, don't get your face in the mud, it's gross!!

 Much better after dumping water on head and making you able to see and open your mouth!

 Me trying to NOT get muddy....

 Stepping into the water to get cleaned. After this they kicked everyone out of the "Lake"

 After the initial rise off....

 Attempting to get cleaned by the spraying spouts of water that did absolutely nothing....

And then we headed home to shower and get clean. There you have it, all the mud you could ever want.....

Jessica's Endowments

For Jessica's Birthday we were able to get the day off and spend it going through the temple with her for the first time. It was great to be able to go through with Grandma and Mom and dad, Carter and Crystal even came to cheer her on as well. We sure love the temple and were excited to share that day with Jessica. Especially because 8 days later she'll be marrying Carter there!! And it is also neat for me since the DC Temple was my first temple to go through. We sure love this temple!!

However, one of the neatest experiences I've ever had in the temple was the day before Jess and Carter's wedding we all met the family that came out for the wedding in the temple. There were 18 of us in all! This was the first time I'd seen some of my aunt's and uncles and my grandparents in the temple and it was a neat experience. Just with that Dustin and Nate's wife Mari could have been, but glad Matt and Chelsea came up with the idea!! 


We didn't take any pictures of the wedding since there were TONS of people taking pictures, but I'll get some and we'll share. I also did a "Trash the Dress" session with Emily which was exciting so I'll post those when they are ready. WE certainly are loving life and enjoying spending time with friends and family. We love to Live The Dream!