5 months down... and an announcement

Obviously we have slacked off on picture taking the last 4-5 months, because it is only baby/pregnancy pictures that seem to appear on the blog! In my defense, we do live away from all family so these pictures allow them see how my pregnancy is progressing.

Here I am at 5 months and a little over the halfway mark! Woohoo!

In other news, we won't be far from all family much longer. Brad is getting a work transfer that will be taking us back to Utah in July. It will make for a pretty busy summer-- moving and a baby-- but I think (I hope!) we are up for the challenge.

Pink or Blue?

I love the hand to the forehead pose... he's a thinker already!

Here is our precious baby... BOY! I guess mother's intuition was replaced by 'father knows best', because Brad has called boy from the beginning. I, on the other hand, was seeing pink this whole time and it took me by surprise when I was proved wrong!

Baby boy measured 8 inches long, weighed in at a whopping 11 ounces... and I can already tell he is adorable. :)

Now that we know it's a boy the shopping has begun! Brad was a great sport as I dragged him around Saturday, first to a huge baby sale and then to Babies R Us to register. And although it has mostly been fun, it has also been a little stressful. Am I alone in this? I tossed and turned the other night because my mind was racing with so many thoughts: "Did I pick the safest travel system?" "What colors would be best for the nursery?"-- who knew the baby would bring so much stress before he's even born!

We are getting excited for our trip to Utah next week where we will celebrate Grandma Odie's 80th birthday and a baby shower for me! YEAH!

6 days and counting...

UPDATE: Just got a call that they need to reschedule the ultrasound... to Friday! Only 2 more days! YEAH!! :)

Only 6 more days until we find out if this little baby is a boy or girl. Finally!! I feel like I'm the only person who has ever had to wait until 20 weeks for the gender ultrasound.

Just for fun we put up a poll at the top of the blog. You have until Monday to cast a vote but you can only vote once so there's no chance of stacking the results (cough, cough... Brad)

Sunny San Diego

Last week I flew home to help out the family while my mom enjoyed a relaxing 4 day hospital stay. (No kids, no cleaning, no cooking, did I mention no kids- yeah, not a bad gig, right mom?! Oh, well minus the whole surgery part!) I must say I was looking forward to my week "off of work"... haha... not quite! Being a mom is hard work. Yes, I know all of you moms already know this! I think I came home more tired than when I left but all in all, it was a fabulous trip. I loved getting to spend a little extra one-on-one time with my siblings and get a taste of what awaits me in just a few short months. Although I am so grateful it is just 1 coming in September and not 4!

My 3 youngest siblings were on spring break during my visit so we made sure to stay busy during the days. The only pictures from the trip are from our beach trip. It was a beautiful day and the kids had a great time playing-- even though Taryn reminded me more than a couple times that I forgot her sand toys and she had to dig and make castles with her hands. Sorry Taryn, but at least I remembered the food and sunscreen!


On the way home, I earned major 'cool points' by making a pit stop at In n Out for some milkshakes. What a great day!

Easter weekend & Updated Belly Picture

We have had a wonderful Easter/Conference weekend. Holiday traditions have been a little hard to get into since we moved to Walnut Creek, being that it is only Brad and me-- no other family close by and no kids. I still think they are important to do, so we dyed eggs and prepared Easter baskets for each other. We kept it simple; in fact the dying of eggs was so simple I am afraid the extended Hardcastle family would be disappointed in my lack of preparation. (Wondering why? See this post!) So, this is the only picture I am putting up of our evening!

Only 3 weeks until we find out if this little baby is a girl or boy... which means for the next 3 weeks we will continue to speculate who is right.

Here is an updated picture of me a 4 months. It seems the belly is growing a little bit every day!


And wasn't General Conference absolutely AMAZING! What a wonderful weekend!

What's going on with the Hardcastles...

...Not much! So sorry to disappoint our fans ;)

At 16 weeks, I'm very happy to be over the first trimester yuckies and feeling a little like my old self again. I'm cooking dinner, back at the gym and, besides some sleepless nights, have no complaints! I'm learning that my tastes have changed and old meals that used to be favorites no longer taste as good as they did pre-pregnancy. (Pregnancy veterans- is that normal?) The baby is now the size of an avocado and I'm hoping to start feeling him/her move sometime soon. We have to wait a few more weeks until we find out the gender... so we will continue to each think we're right until then!

Here's a picture of me at 3 months. I've definitely gotten bigger since this one, so I'll try to get a more updated picture soon.


I accepted another church calling a few weeks ago. I'm still working with my Beehives, but I am also now a ward organist. Thank goodness I am in a rotation of 5, so I only play about once a month. My first Sunday was in February and it went well- no major mistakes, thank goodness because I was pretty nervous! I'm really enjoying the opportunity to develop my organ skills, as it is very different from the piano.

I'm looking forward to a mini getaway next week. I'll be going to sunny San Diego for a week to spend time with my family. I've already made a list of my must-haves, which include: beach, rolled tacos at my favorite taco shop, and a few of mom's famous chocolate chip cookies. I can't wait! :)

Brad is keeping busy with work. His current client is in San Jose, which means a lot of driving. On a good day, he's in the car for about 3 hours... on a bad day- don't ask! He's looking forward to his next client, which starts Monday and is only about 20 minutes away.

We are both enjoying the beautiful spring weather that we've been having. It's rainy and cold today, but I'm hoping the sun decides to come back for Easter weekend. I can't wait for Easter & General Conference this weekend. What a great weekend it will be!

The best things in life are worth the wait...

... and this one is certainly no exception:

This beautiful baby is set to arrive mid September! As some of you know, we have wanted this for a very long time. I'm 12 weeks along and feeling pretty good. Not great, but better than most I think. We had our second appointment yesterday and the baby looks perfect and has a nice, strong heartbeat. We are so thrilled to become a family of three and September can't come soon enough!

Go Jazz!

Last Friday night Brad and I went to 'Mormon Night at the Warriors'. That's the Golden State Warriors (for those non-NBAers out there...cough cough... Dad Urry) and they were playing our favorite team: the Utah Jazz.

We got to enjoy the game with our favorite Alameda pals, Bret and Whitney. I was surprised at how outnumbered we were as Jazz fans! If we weren't surrounded by Bret and Whitney's ward members, we probably would have been heckled or something. Okay, probably not, but I was still surprised!

The game started off with it the missionaries performing the National Anthem. How cool is that? And to continue with the 'LDS' theme, our halftime entertainment was provided by the local LDS 'East/West' 10-12 year old league. We were rooting so hard for those boys! The final score of their 10 minute game was 2-0. Guess that basket is a little high when you're only 4 ft tall.

Besides the 30 minute wait at the concession stand for our complementary dinner (our tickets came with it!) and a sluggish 4th quarter by the Jazz, it was a great evening. Oh yeah, and the Jazz won. But did you really think the #3 power ranked team would lose to the 16-40 Warriors? Not a chance.

(The lighting isn't the most flattering, but it's the only picture we took)

Weekend of Ross

(All pictures in this post courtesy of Ross Urry... budding photographer!)

My brother Ross came and visited us over the 3-day weekend in January. I was bummed that the forecast called for rain everyday, but luckily it held off Saturday so we jetted into the city for some exploring of Point Reyes, the Lands End Trail, Ocean Beach, and China Town.

It was pretty foggy, but we were just happy there wasn't any rain!

Beautiful Northern California coast line.

The Golden Gate Bridge behind us.

After a long day in the city, we headed to the Oakland Temple where we performed living ordinances for some of Brad's ancestors. When we were done, Ross pulled out his sweet new camera and snapped some pictures of the temple. Absolutely beautiful!



We headed home for some homemade Korean BBQ. Except for absolutely butchering the mandu potstickers (my fault), it was a great dinner. We followed it with the highly anticipated ChocoPie.

Ross was slightly disappointed that it didn't taste a little "sweeter", but to Korean's this treat would be too sweet for some. For most Koreans, dessert is fresh fruit, not the cookies/cakes/pies that we have. Must not have been too bad, because he still ate a 2nd one :)

Monday we spent the morning at the California Academy of Sciences and explored their planetarium, aquarium, rainforest, and natural history musuem. It was interesting, but just a one time thing for me. It did, however, give us an indoor activity to shield us from the buckets of rain outside.

After the museum we headed to the famous Fentons creamery- the same one mentioned in the recent Disney movie "Up!".
After lunch we drove to UC Berkeley and explored campus before heading off to the airport. Poor Ross ended up having a 2 hour delay, but with the internet and homework, I'm sure the time passed quickly! :)

It was a fun weekend, and we sure do LOVE visitors!

Christmas Festivities

1/13: Added a few more pictures at the bottom!

Christmas is just a little different, a little more magical, when there are little ones around. It was so fun to be there Christmas morning with my siblings. Brad and I were a little confused when we woke up at 7:30 and they were all still sound asleep! So we were the ones waking them up (I know, weird huh?) Christmas morning. No worries though, they quickly snapped out of their grumpy-half-asleep phase when they remembered what day it was.
Santa brought the whole family a Wii... but just try telling Luke that. He is convinced that it's just for him. Well, he certainly has logged more hours on it than all of us combined, but sorry Luke it is still a family gift.
Grant got a new-to-him electric guitar to continue his newfound love of the guitar. He is completely self taught so far, and really talented. Keep it up Grant!
Princess Taryn got a dollhouse. She loved it and couldn't wait for Dad & Brad to assemble it for her. She's still trying to convince my parents that they should paint it pink... but I don't see her winning that battle.

(Aren't my siblings adorable? Sorry, no pictures of Ross on Christmas morning, but rest assured he was there. Check out their equally adorable Christmas Eve performances here!)


The best gift of the day was saved for last. This was the "mystery gift" that had sat unmarked under the tree for a few weeks. The kids were each SURE it was for them. It was actually for my Dad. It was a framed picture of Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail that my dad had fallen in love with last year on their trip to Nauvoo, IL. With some stealth moves on my mom's and my part, we were able to get the artist to personalize a message and sign the print. My dad said it was the best gift he's ever gotten. (Dad, I guess that Donny Osmond CD I got you is 2nd-best now?!)

The day after Christmas, Brad, Taryn, and I drove up to visit my Dad's parents in Sun City. It was good to spend a few hours with them. Taryn had fun playing with the cats, and Brad had fun listening to all of Grandpa's stories and dusting Grandma's fan. What a guy!


We had quite a few lunch/dinner dates while in Escondido. One night we were getting ready to eat dinner with my family, and Luke asked, "Aren't you guys going out to dinner?" He just assumed we went out for all meals! We were able to get together with two of my best friends and their husbands, as well as our good friends The Andrews, and Brad's former coworkers Ricky & Maggie.
It was great to see Janelle & Tonya (and Mike & Adam). This was the first time all 6 of us had ever been together. I'm already looking forward to the next get together. I'm not sure when that will be, with us living in 3 different states... but it will happen! Maybe a spring trip to San Francisco? What do you think girls?

I can't wait to see the pictures Whitney has from our visit with their cute family of four. :)

Other highlights from the trip include:
*Temple trip with my parents and dinner to Pat & Oscars. I miss those breadsticks already!
*Talking to Bryant on Christmas. He's home in 7 months!
*Family birthday party for Grandpa Fox's 81st B-day
*Anniversary getaway to San Diego (see post here)
*Holiday Bowl parade
*San Diego International Auto Show
*Holiday Bowl party at Full Swing Golf. What's better than 4 hours of football? Playing golf on a wall size simulator while watching football.
*Family movie day, which had the older boys seeing Invictus, and the girls+Luke seeing Princess & Frog.
*New Years Eve, which included spirited games of Twister, free hair stylings by Taryn, and sparklers at midnight.
*Football... lots of football.
*Nintendo Wii.
*Lots of laughs and memories!

It was a great trip, and hard to leave, but real life called. We are looking forward to the upcoming long weekend and Ross's trip to visit us in sunny San Fran!