Christmas brings...

My third trimester!!! It was official Christmas day. I have 13 weeks left! I cannot believe it! It seems like it is going by so fast. With school starting up the first week in January, I feel like it is going to go by even faster. We went to the Strebin's for Christmas day and got to hang out with the Guthrie side of the family. Ben's cousin Amy is also pregnant and is due about 10 weeks after me. It is fun to have so many people pregnant :) I won a Gap gift card for the family Christmas exchange that I am going to try and spend on me, but lets be serious... it will most likely get spend on little baby Payton. It's just so hard not to!

We hung out with Sadie and the kidlets for a couple of hours on Christmas eve. I wish we could have spent more time with them. They are so much fun! Miriam was dancing and singing "We wish you a merry Christmas" very beautifully. We got the girls some makeup and little boxes to keep it in that I wrote out their names on. They had a lot of fun putting it on. I tried to get Emma more grown up make up. I think she liked that. Then Johnny got some Spider man and Wolverine bionacles. He was pretty excited. I can't believe how fast they are growing up! I want them to stay this little forever!

We opened up Christmas presents on Christmas eve since Rachel (Ben's sister) and Josh (her fiance) had to drive up to Tacoma that night so Josh could work the next day. We got to hang our with them all week and play Settlers of Katan. It was such a fun week! I love those guys. I wish we lived closer together! Ben and I got each other bags for Christmas. I got him a Timbuk2 messenger bag that I customized to have an orange logo and be orange on the inside. It is a very nice bag that he really wanted.

Ben got me a Petunia Pickle Bottom diaper bag. (Which I now realize it not exactly the one pictured, but its really close and moving pictures around on this thing is annoying so I'm not going to change it.) It is pretty sweet! I am super excited about it. My mom and dad got me a really cute bag/purse that is HUGE and I can also use for a diaper bag, so I am set :)

Those were our major gifts. We got lots of great stuff from friends and family. It's pretty crazy to think that next Christmas we will have a little 9 month old. I can't wait!!!

Another football post

I know I know.... I am weird and I love football, but this year has the potential to be the worst year in football ever. With the Beavers not going to a bowl game and the Ducks having the potential to win it all, I would usually rely on my trusty Colts. Unfortunately they are in danger of not making it to the playoffs! Add to that the Patriots are getting picked as a team to win the super bowl and that is my nightmare! Regardless, I have total faith in the Colts. They are going to make it to the playoffs. Even if they have many injuries and Clark is out for the season. Although I am contemplating that this is the universes way of forcing me to stop getting so stressed out and excited every Sunday. If that is the case, universe... I promise to calm down! Well who am I kidding. I can't make that promise!

One season over while another begins...

If you didn't know this years Civil War was a big one. The University of Oregon Ducks were/are ranked #2 and a win meant they would go to the BCS national championship game. The Oregon State Beavers had to win to go to a bowl game at all. In the beginning of the year there were high hopes for the Beavs. The schedule set us up to play some big teams (Boise State and TCU) out of conference. Unfortunately we lost both. Add to that one of our key players

James Rodgers tore his knee.

and our first year QB struggled at times.

Last year the winner went to the Rose Bowl and the Ducks won. As Beavers we felt it was our game and it was taken from us. So this year we wanted nothing more than to take the big one away from the Ducks. I was hoping to see something like this...

But alas... The Ducks won 37 to 20. and it looked more like this.

It was pretty disappointing. The loss meant that our season was over. No more football for us. Needless to say, Ben and I are sore losers and will be cheering for the Auburn Tigers when they face the Ducks this January. With the Colts in playoff jeopardy, this has not been a good year in football for me. But I still have hope for the Colts. I always have hope :)


The good news is that the Christmas Season is here!! Ben and I went out and bought our Christmas tree yesterday and decorated today.

I love this time of year!. We had one day of snow already and it made the campus beautiful! Although I would consider it a light dusting :)

It's she Lovely!!

Introducing Payton Elizabeth Aeby

I know that I am biased but she is so cute! This particular shot was a little difficult to get as she just wanted to curl up and sleep at this point but I'm glad we got it. Her hand is up by her chin and she was moving it downward so it seems like there might be two, but it's just the one caught in action.

She was so good. At first she was moving around stretching out (which was crazy to watch) but then she decided she had enough and wanted a nap. So I had to keep turning from side to side to get her to move. It was pretty crazy to watch her adjust to a more comfortable position every time I did.

For almost the whole pregnancy both Ben and I thought we were having a boy. I was confused about it but I never got the feeling we were having a girl, so I thought I must then be a boy. Then about 2 weeks ago I had a dream that I was holding an adorable blue eyed, brown curly haired little girl. It started me doubting my convictions in it being a boy. Still, other than the dream I had no inklings of a girl.

When we were in the doctors office getting the ultra sound, the technician knew we wanted to know the sex and had been informing us all along the way of what she was doing. She would let us know that she was measuring the femur length and the cranium and checking to make sure she was opening and closing her mouth. So when she got to the gender it was a shock when without telling us she was looking for the gender at all, she mentioned she had girly parts and was in fact a girl. It took us a second to realize what she had just told us and Ben said, "Wait, did you just say she is a girl?"

It was so exciting! There SHE was! She was very shy and didn't want to show off too much, but she gave us a good enough look to make sure there was no doubt. It took me a while to adjust to the idea of a girl, and now I can't think of anything else.

As for the name, we have gotten lots of questions about it so I thought I would post how we got the name. I like girl names that could also be boy names. As Ben and I were going over some of them, Sam, Taylor, Jessie, etc... we came upon Payton. I loved it! And no... not because of Peyton Manning (although it doesn't hurt any). Then we thought about middle names and we wanted it to be something in the family. Ben's sister has a middle name Elizabeth and we liked the sound of that. Then Ben mentioned her initials would be PEA and we could call her our little sweet pea. I was set. I loved it. Sweet peas are beautiful and smell absolutely amazing and one of my favorites. I thought this was a special name. So that is it.

I cannot wait to meet her!!!

Trip to the East Coast - NY city

I LOVED NY City!! I now understand why my dad always thought I would live there. It was so much fun. Don't get me wrong. I want to live my days in the clean Oregon open airs, but I wouldn't mind spending a few years in the hustle and bustle of a city like New York.

When Kate and Kez came out to visit me last summer in Oregon I introduced them to the Orange Dream at Jamba Juice and there are not Jamba Juices in sight in Mass. So of course we had to go when we were in NYC!

Times square at night. So cool.

We ate at an amazing place in Little Italy that had the most authentic Italian food. It was exactly what I have been craving since I left Rome :)

The Subways were a fun time!

Times square with my dad during the day.

The most amazing thing is just how tall the buildings are. And running in between them in some places is like eight lanes of traffic. It is craziness.

We went to ground zero and I have to say that was tough. It was hard to see that and remember what a horrible day that was.

I know that it means a lot to my dad. Especially since he served his mission here.

And what a cute dad he is! This is on the Staton Island Ferry

If you look reeeaallly carefully you can see the statue of Liberty to the left.

Me and Kez on the ferry.

The statue

Cute Kez. She is getting so big!!

Me and dad in Grand Central Station

Trip to the East Coast - Boston

Yay for School being out for the summer!! I get to actually update my blog. Although I should be cleaning... Oh well!! :)
Over spring break I went to visit my parents and siblings who recently moved to Mass. (I'm not going to spell it our cause I would totally ruin it)
It was a ton of fun!!!! I had a blast and would love to spend much more time over there. The first posting is going to be of our trip to Boston. I didn't know how much I would like it with their team being the Patriots and all... but I didn't see too much of that stuff so it was ok. It was actually a lot of fun. I got to see the "Bawstan Haba" and had some "clam chowda" and walked around "Havad Yahd". By the end of the day I couldn't say Havard correctly. It kept coming out Havad. Their accent catches rather quickly!!

Here is me and Mom in from of the new old north church

A huge statue that Kez got attached to

This one is a good one. I caught them right at the right moment. We were eating gelato and it was sunny but windy. We were in the shade and I think we just got a cold gust of wind cause their faces are awesome. Whats even better is the statue is looking at Kezi all weird too :)

Kate's new Boyfriend :) I like him better.

This was what people would pay for and sit in for church. This is in the old north church where the whole "one by land, two by sea" story happened with the lanterns. It is pretty cool. A spot like this one would have been like $200,000 to rent for the year. So they were high rollers :) They could decorate it however they wanted too.

When they would purchase or rent a box they would get their name on the outside and some people shared. We found one with the name Brown! Even though it's spelled wrong :/

Here is me. mom and Kez in the Brown box :)

This was outside the Old North Church and it was pretty cool. I was a memorial for the soldiers who have given their lives. These were blank dog tags that were like chimes in the wind.

This was kate and kez having fun in the fountain.

Quick update... again

I will admit it... I am an awful blogger. But when life gets too busy, the blog is the thing that gets left out. Here is a quick update for anyone who stops by every now and then to check up.
Ben and I are doing great! We are still students and will be for a while. I am working part time at Old Navy and full time student. I applied to the Honors College for next year. I am crossing my fingers.
Ben is busy, busy, busy. He is also full time with school and is also in an internship. It is called college works painting and he basically runs his own painting company for the summer under the umbrella of a national company. He is doing amazing so far and making lots of money so I couldn't be more proud! He also met with his counselor and decided he could get a double degree. So in about two years he will have a Bachelors in Arts and a Bachelors in Science. The BS will be for business and the BA will be History. He is really having a good time and we are both loving this time in our lives.
I get to go to see the family in MA over spring break! I am really excited about it. We had some flyer $ with southwest that were about to run out so I decided to spend them seeing my families new state.
That is all for now, time to get some sleep!