Pregnancy Thus Far

I love reading blogs and staying up to date with what is happening in our family and friends lives. Because of this, I have decided that I am going to blog about my pregnancy and all of the ups and downs and crazy things going on. Plus, I have been keeping a journal of this pregnancy so far and I would way rather type then write. So here's the scoop:

5.5 weeks - Found out I was pregnant! :)

6 weeks - 13 weeks- SICK SICK SICK

8 weeks - first doctors appointment, saw our baby (Even though it only looked like a little blob), saw and heard it's heartbeat! Doctor said everything was looking right on track and set my due date to be December 10th!

11 weeks - Doctors appointment, the doctor warned us that we may not find the heartbeat with the doppler this early and might have to do an ultrasound (for a breif second I was hoping he wouldnt hear it so we would get to see our baby again, but I pushed that thought away in 2 seconds because I just wanted to know things were still going well) but the doctor found the heartbeat almost immediately!

13.5 weeks - finally feeling so much better and can eat full meals without wanting to die after.

15 weeks - doctors appointment, finally gained the weight back I had lost from being so so sick, heard the baby's heartbeat loud and clear with the doppler, and our doctor informed us that our little one was moving all around in there (even though I cant feel it yet) and thats why he was constantly moving the doppler around.

16 weeks - TODAY! I am feeling great except for the headaches that usually come on in the evening time, but I would way rather have headaches then nausea. I have a lot of energy throughout the day, but some days I need a midafternoon cat nap to rejuvinate my body.

That is how things have been so far. I love how I will get addicted to eating certain things and they will be the only things that sound good, then magically I will wake up and not feel like it again at all. When I was so sick early on in the pregnancy the only things I could eat were crackers and lemonheads and I felt like I would never be able to eat meat again in my whole life. Then the first thing I could eat that had some substance to it was a dippy egg (sunnyside up) with a piece of toast. When my body decided it didnt like that anymore I started having bean and cheese burritos and cereal all the time, which let me tell you cereal doesn't keep you full very long. For the last 2 weeks I have been hooked on bagels and cream cheese and when I say hooked I mean I go to Walmart at 11pm when my husband is in bed because I realize I don't have bagels for the next day. I kind of like that my taste buds are changing and some foods taste totally different then before.
Luckily I have been able to exercise almost all the time since I found out I was pregnant (minus the week I could barely eat enough to keep my body awake, let alone exert it on exercise), but I am so glad that I can still run and do light lifting because its something I really enjoy. I defintely want this to last, but I know that it is inevitable to think that I will be able to sprint on the tredmill when I have a big ol baby belly to bring along with me in the coming months.
Speaking of baby bellys I was always not sure if I would really want to post pictures of myself when I got pregnant of my growing belly, but I decided that Im ok with it and maybe it will help me accept that fact that my stomach will no longer be flat and I am going to see new numbers on the scale that I have never seen before. I would totally upload a belly shot for this post, but honestly its pretty non-existent still. My tummy is definitely not flat anymore, but really just looks like I stuff myself at every meal and my shirts are getting a little snug.
Things I am looking forward to: growing a baby bump, finding out the gender (hopefully later on this week!! :), and feeling the baby move. All of these things seem to differ according to every woman and according to every pregnancy, so I look forward to them whenever it is and hopefully that will make this whole pregnant thing feel more real. Because as of right now, since the nausea is gone it hardly feels like I have something the size of a large orange growing inside of me and wiggling all around :)

Update: Graduation & Pregnancy

I know that it has been over 6 months since my last blog post but ALOT of things have been happening in our lives. If there was one phrase to sum it all it would be We are Blessed! Here's a quick update of our life over the past months:

December 2011 - We spent Christmas with James family here in Utah and it was the first time in a LONG time that everyone was together. Alyssa had just gotten home from her mission and Blake came up from Nevada. It was so fun to be together and we did things like take family pictures, go tubing, GHS Alumni Tourney (James year won :), Movies, and alot more fun things together.

January - March 2012 - These were probably the hardest months James and I have had since we've been married. I was swamped with student teaching and commuting to Provo and James was on his regular shift work that multiple times a month we wouldn't see each other for 3-4 straight days, then when we did see each other it was enough time to say 'hi, im tired beyond belief, goodnight' or 'hey, ill pack your lunch really quick, k see ya' and any other free time was spent lesson planning on my part. We learned so much during this time and really grew together because our time together became so valuable and we had to really share the weight of responsibilities.

April 2012 - We found out we are going to have a BABY!!!!!! :) I took a test while James was at work and I could not believe it when I saw it, so I took 3 more tests and was finally convinced enough. The next day was Easter so I decided that I wanted to tell James in a special way. I put together an Easter egg hunt with 7 eggs. In each egg I put one word from the sentence 'You are going to be a daddy!' I woke up before him and hid the eggs. I woke him up and told him I had a suprise for him. He is so sweet and played along. I told him he had to find the eggs and there was a riddle inside. So he found all the eggs and began opening them. He opened them all except the last one so it read 'you are going to be a....' and of course he starts guessing things (by the way later I learn he thought I had gotten him an Ipad...which I did, but at a later time) so he starts guessing things like Im going to be the coolest guy at work, Im going to be really sophisticated etc. I wanted to jump out of my skin and yell your are going to be a dad, but finally he opened the last egg and stared at it lost for words for a moment, then he looked up with the biggest smile on his face and said REALLY????? He tackled me to the ground and I could finally let all my excitement out I had been holding in since the previous evening!

We were so excited to share the news with our families. James, for the past six months has been telling his parents that we were having a baby at sunday dinner every week, crying wolf, so when we told his parents they hardly believed us. Jim said "Let me see the stick I dont believe it" hahaha. We really wanted to tell my family in person, so we waited until they would be out for graduation (2.5 weeks later). It was hard to keep the secret, but we waited and they were all estatic for us! The first grandbaby on either side of our families!! :)...much more on pregnancy to come.

Like I metioned above another big milestone for us in the month of April was my GRADUATION! I graduated from BYU with a Bachelors in Elementary Education with an Emphasis in Early Childhood Education and a minor in Teaching English Language Learners. I am so grateful for my education and glad that we made the sacrifices necessary for me to finish my degree. Here are some pictures from graduation.

Thankful Tuesday

I know that I have been bad about blogging, and I thought November was going to be easier by blogging about what I was thankful for. It has definitely helped me think everyday for the things I am grateful for, but I havent been good about posting it! So today I have a few to catch up for. First, yesterday I was so grateful for my garage. I loved coming out to a sheltered car and not having to scrape ice and snow off my car in the morning. Last night I was so grateful for a dishwasher. I was so glad that I just had to rinse the dishes off and throw them into the dishwasher instead of hand washing each item like in our old apartment. It is nice to be having our own house with our own things. I am so grateful!

What November Brings...

October seemed to be a pretty stressful month with work and school and getting all setteled in the new house and I am determined to not let November become that way. First, because I am in a school teaching which is way more fun then sitting in classes with teachers telling you what you should do, but not actually putting it into practice. Second, because my family is coming to visit at Thanksgiving time. Third, because it is the Holiday season. Fourth because my dear sister in law and best friend is completing her last full month on her mission and I cannot wait for her to get home!!!
I am going to try and get back in the blogging habit by doing things that I am thankful for. Today I am grateful for our cars. Now, we all know that I totaled our car a few months ago and my sweet husband bought us another new car, but its a manual and I dont know how to drive it, so that leaves me driving our lovely blue car. In the beginning I was a little sad to be driving our older car, but I am just so grateful for a car that has given us no problems AT ALL and allowed me to put over 40,000 miles on it in one year doing all my commuting. I am grateful for my safety will driving. There are so many things to be grateful for I don't think that all the days in November are going to be enough!

Bermuda, Bahama, Come on Pretty Mama!

Ok, we didnt go to Bermuda, but we DID go to the Bahamas!!! It was so much fun and even though the hurricane put a little bit of a damper on our plans, we had an amazing time. It was so nice to be away from the craziness of life (work, school, putting the house together). We flew from Salt Lake to Miami and stayed a night in Miami. Then we boarded the ship and first stopped in Nassau, Bahamas. It was the most beautiful beach I have ever seen. It literally looked like a screen saver (you know the one im talking about :) We played in the water until we got wrinkley, laid out, then back in the water. Also, we drove a scooter around the town which was an adventure in its self because there they drive on the other side of the road and do not really follow many traffic laws, so we had some close calls. That was by far my favorite stop. The next day we were supposed to stop in Coco Cay, bahamas, but the hurricane was coming so we had to move north west. As we were leaving the bahamas our captain said "take a look at the shore because it will never look like this again after Irene comes through here". We were grateful to be safe, but sad we missed that stop. Instead we went to key west florida for two days. It was alot of fun, but a lot more tourist-ie. We gained a million pounds...eating became a recreational activity on the boat rather than an 'eat when your hungry' thing lol. I wish I would've blogged sooner, so that I could've included more details, but we got back Saturday night and I started school Monday Morning, so things were quite crazy! We had an awesome time and I am so grateful to my hardworking husband who spoils me :)



About to board the ship!



most southern part of the US

Cant get a rainbow without a little rain!

Well, alot has happened since my last post, but that always seems to be the case! First off James brother Joey returned home from his mission! Yay more family :] Now theres just Alyssa (james sister) left to finish off her mission! Then a few days later there was 4th of July! I LOVE fourth of July, I mean who doesnt like a holiday that includes, sunshine, swimming, eating and best of all FIREWORKS?! We went with James's family on a hike that weekend and had a blast! Later that week we put an offer on a house here in stansbury and they accepted it!, now we're just waiting to close (Ill do a full house post on all those happenings after we close!) then James got a huge promotion at work to be a control room operator! I love my hardworking husband, he busted his tail for a year there while the other guys made fun of him for workin so hard, but now two promotions later he's livin the good life as one of two guys running the entire facility from his computer. I'm a proud wife! James and I were just chattin one night thinkin man, did we pay extra tithing this month or something because the blessings are just pouring out! jk, but we are definitly grateful for everything we have been blessed with.
 Of course, there is oppoition in all things, how would be truly experience joy without sorrow right? Well, I guess we needed something to contrast against all this "joy" because last week I was doing my normal drive between provo and stansbury and hydroplaned on the freeway and totaled our car. I am ok, luckily I was not seriously injured and just had to put up with a sore back and neck for a few days. Thank goodness James was not workin and he rushed to my rescue along with every police officer in a 30 mile radius...jus kidding...but like five of them pulled over and the officer helping me kept sayin "Ive got it covered thanks!" Of course I balled hysterically and everyone kept asking are you sure you aren't hurt? I kept responding...im really ok, Im just a cryer! After talking with the insurance and working out a few details everything is panning out very smoothly. The worst part of it all is that now I have to go car shopping again! One of my least favorite things. I hate it because no car salesman is ever completely straight forward with you. I just want to say to the right off the bat "look I know this is your job and you need to make money off me, im totally ok with that I just dont want to get ripped off" So the adventures begin!
After all of these happenings of course my young women lesson I taught today was on keeping an eternal perspective while overcoming opposition. I was like really Heavenly Father I didnt need a real life story just for this lesson. lol. Im grateful for my calling because it was the perfect thing to do this weekend.
A few quotes:

" Do all you can do and then leave the rest to the Lord. President Howard W. Hunter said: “If our lives and our faith are centered on Jesus Christ and his restored gospel, nothing can ever go permanently wrong."

“We cannot avoid opposition. The only question is how we will react to it. Will our adversities be stumbling blocks or stepping-stones”

Pretty Waterfall we hiked to!

Our lead hiker!

The boys!

Youth Conference 2011!

In our ward I have served in the Young Womens program for about 9 months now. I love it! I love all of my girls and the friendships I have made with all those I associate more closely with. One of the many fun things that I was able to participate in was going to Youth Conference this past weekend. The ward had planned to go to the Bishop's lakehouse in Delta, UT and I knew it was going to be a blast. I invited my little brother to come out and go with us as well. We left Thursday morning and drove down there. Once we arrived we went out on the lake, played fear factor, more jet ski and tubing rides, then a sing off on the singstar game. Friday we were out and about all day with the service project, more lake time, volleyball, scavenger hunt, testimony meeting, capture the flag and smores. Saturday we hung out for a bit then cleaned up and came home. It was a fun filled weekend and the kids all seemed to have a blast.
On friday I was able to try wakeboarding (which I had never done before). I was a little nervous and watched closely as a couple of people went before me. Then, I decided to give it a go. I tried to remember everything everyone had told me to do and I got up on my first try. Needless to say I didnt stay up for very long, but when the boat pulled back around they said sorry we only told you how to get up, but not what to do once you actually were standing becuase we didnt think you were going to get up on your first try! I then attempted a few more times and got up again for a bit longer. It was so fun and I definitely am determined to master it. Here are a few pictures from the fun weekend, I was really bad at remembering to take pictures.

Sit ups challenge

sit ups challenge finals

timer/drill sergeant at the sit ups station

scripture station

Origami folding station

winning team!

willow game - trusting in others

finally standing together

singstar!

waterballoon baseball