Aaron's Graduation!

I can't even believe that my little brother could be old enough to graduate high school! I'm so proud of him. Not only did he graduate but pulled off an accumulative GPA of 4.0. He also got his 4 yr graduate diploma from seminary. Way to go buddy! Sadly I wasn't able to make it to the actual graduation because of bed rest. I did go to Aaron's seminary graduation so that made me feel a bit better about missing the Weber high one. But I did brave out going to dinner later that day. This is honestly my first outing in a little over 2 months. I was starting to feel a little more confident about getting up a little since I had made it to 32 weeks! Anyone who was worried about premature birth knows that is a really big milestone! It felt nice to get out but mostly I was just freaked out that something bad was going to happen. Not to mention that my poor body was pretty uncomfortable sitting on hard chairs and walking around made my legs pretty shaky. Chris was a sweetie and let me sit on his jacket and that seemed to help pad the chair enough to make it through dinner. But it was fun to get out and celebrate with the family.

I didn't think Chris was really taking my picture. But I just thought it was funny cause you can see my big round belly :)

After dinner we decided to stick around for a little bit and take some pictures around the trains. Almost 33 weeks and Chris can still fit his arms around this big belly... That makes me happy.

My whole family.. Except Amanda's husband Sean that wasn't about to make the trip.

The Graduate!

I couldn't help but post a few pictures of these cuties. Chris had some fun with his camera taking pictures of my niece, Ana, and my cousins little boy Logan. Aren't they adorable!?

"Hugs"

My first "Expectant Mother" Mothers Day

Here is my very first Mother's Day gift! Chris got me this Willow Tree. It is called "New Life". I love it. I had a really great day. Considering that I was down either on the couch or on my bed pretty much the entire day :) I got my breakfast in bed made by Chris. And then he spent the entire day with me... It was perfect hanging out on the couch with Chris and feeling my son moving all around in me. So I finally got a little brave and went to my family get together at my Aunts house in north Ogden. It is about a 5 minute drive and then they were nice enough to let me just lay on their couch the entire night. It felt so good to get out and to see my aunts, cousins, grandma etc.. We are all so close and it has been sad missing out on all the family events for the last few months. Probably the dang pregnancy hormones but I had to fight back tears just getting to hug my grandma again.
I don't think I can even start to tell everyone how amazing my mom is. She has truly been my best friend all through my life. She is the perfect example to me of how I want to be with my kids and raising my own family. I am so grateful that we live so close to our families and so happy that my mom will be with me to help me raise my family. I am starting to feel some emotions that I didn't know existed for my little boy already and it honestly brings such a different view of my mom to me. She has always been there for all my big and little things in life and now with this last trial of being on bed rest she has been right here. Spending so much of her time doing more than enough to make sure I am taken care of. Whether it be her constantly cleaning my house for me, or doing all my grocery shopping, making endless meals for me or emotionally supporting me while I am horrified of the future and need to talk it out, she has been there. I love you Mom. I don't know how I could ever show you how much. Or how much I appreciate you.

I can't wait to be a new mom this year. I am sure that it will be an interesting trip but well worth it. I've got a lot to learn. That is what I have always wanted to be "when I grow up" is a mom and I still can't believe my dream is coming true. I love you little boy in me(I wish I had a name but we are to indecisive) and I am so very excited to meet you. I hope I can be the Mom you deserve.

My mom, Grandma, Aunt Becky

Our 4 year Anniversary

I have been so so slow at posting this... Back on April 22nd we had our Anniversary. I can't believe another year has passed. How on earth has it already been 4 years? Well we didn't get to go do much for our anniversary this year... I didn't even get to see the outdoors :) Chris took a couple days off so we got to spend some quality time on the couch to celebrate! He got up and made me some breakfast in bed. Which he is getting extremely good at. He has gotten lots of practice over the last few months.. Before I got put down we had thought of going somewhere not to far away like Vegas, St George, or Park City for a few days. But we would much rather be in the situation we are now and still have our little man healthy and strong. There is always next year! I did go outside the Sunday before our Anniversary for just a few minutes so we could get some pictures. Chris just got a new camera for his birthday so it was fun to play around with it. These are just a few of the cute pictures we got that day. I thought they turned out cute. For some reason it still shocks me when I see pictures of myself with a huge belly. I forget that I look that big I guess :)

This year of our marriage has been an interesting/wonderful one. Full of surprises, hard work and crazy times:

- Chris graduated with his bachelors degree from Weber State!

- We worked like crazies on our house. So many hours of hard work.... Mostly for Chris, but I had my fair share. We learned things that I never thought I would learn. Chris has definitely turned into quite the handy man! From electric to plumbing, Sheetrock and mud and taping, and refinishing hardwood floors and tiling it has been an huge learning experience. Although it was hard to not just wish it was over, it was fun to do it all together. Spending countless nights up here till 2 or 3 at night. I have always known Chris was a hard worker but he proved it to me all over again!

- Chris got promoted to be the Assistant Manager back at the Clinton store.

- We got to spend sometime doing some wonderful fertility visits. (Which worked out well :) )

- We got pregnant! And found out that we would be having a little boy in July!

- I had my first visit to the ER at 2 in the morning. I spent a month hurting pretty bad from a cyst. Chris took such good care of me...

- We moved into our house after about a year of owning it! Our hard work finally paid off!

- We had our first stay in the hospital praying to keep our little man in and growing strong. Only 2 nights there but they seemed like forever...

- Probably one of our biggest trials yet. Me being down on bedrest for so long. Chris has been so patient.

That is just to mention a few that I first thought of. We have had an eventful 4th year together. Some of the moments were the best we have had and will be forever. Some were probably the scariest this far. But I have come to realize even more that no matter what comes we have each other. And we continue to grow closer and more in love with each day. Good or bad- Happy or sad. We have been so blessed with such great lives and so blessed to have each other to spend it with. I can't imagine living life with someone else... Thank goodness we have eternity to enjoy :)

Chris's Birthday

It's official... Chris had another birthday. The big 27! Sadly we didn't get to do anything to exciting. We have bedrest to thank for that :) But hey I was at 27 weeks pregnant for his 27th birthday! What are the odds of that :) He didn't have to work that day so get got up and made a yummy breakfast for us(sounds a little backwards right? I wish I could have gotten up and done special things for him) and then we hung out on the couch for the majority of the day. We got take out from Texas Roadhouse and then topped it off with Key lime pie. It was a fun day for me to have him home, but a little sad since usually for his birthday we have been out somewhere fun because it is so close to our anniversary. This year Chris got a new camera. It is really nice and he has had a lot of fun with it. He is practicing up with it so we can get some good shots of our little boy when he comes.

Don't you love this picture... He poses so nicely sometimes...

Trials and the Power of Prayer

(Picture: 19 weeks)

Well I wish i could say that we have had an uneventful couple of months. Unfortunately this pregnancy has brought some very scary events along with the joy and excitement. Throughout these trials I must say that we have been so so blessed and comforted knowing that our Heavenly Father is looking out for our little boy.

It all started out with going to our big targeted ultrasound at 21 1/2 weeks(march 10th). We we so excited to get a even better look at how big our little man was growing and what he looked like. We got into the ultrasound room and the first thing the tech says when she puts it on is "So how is your cervix?". My heart sinks... I had already had fears of anything happening with my cervix shortening because my sister had lost her first babies due to incompetent cervix. ( For those of you who have no idea what that is- your cervix thins out without contractions and then you start to dialate without any signs. Usually it is too late by the time they find out from your water breaking or your baby just being born. And unfortunately it usually happens around 18-24 weeks so there isn't much of a chance of survival at that point.) Anyways turns out that my cervix was at 1.75 cm when the normal is around 4 cm. They could see quite a bit of funneling(where it is thinning out even more). So right after that we got to go talk to our Dr. who decided I needed to go see the Perinatologist(aka high risk Dr.). Set up appointment and was told to stay down.

(Picture: 21 weeks)

The next day I stayed down and later that night after Chris got home I started feeling my stomach tightening. I wasn't sure if they were contractions or not. How am I to know I've never had a baby before! So we took off for the hospital and went to Labor and Delivery. They started checking everything. They had a very strong heartbeat for our little boy and that was good, but they also found that I was having contractions every 2-3 minutes! They didn't hurt at all so most likely they were just the Braxton Hicks contractions. Even still they don't want to mess around with those with how short my cervix was, it could turn into labor really fast. So they gave me a shot and thankfully they stopped my contractions. They did an ffn test and also checked for amniotic fluid to make sure my water hadn't broken. Both came back negative-- another

blessing... I was then admitted so they could monitor me.

Chris and I got to spend our first ever night in the hospital. I think it is safe to say we both slept like crap. The next morning they wheeled me our Perinatologist appointment that was at the hospital. After meeting with him I was more confused than ever with what we should do.

Our options were:

- to just keep staying down and hope that I don't go into labor or dialate any more on my own or -get a cerclage(Where they stitch up the cervix.). They ideally would have placed this around 13-14 weeks. Doing it this far into the pregnancy and with my cervix this short gave a bigger risk of infection or them rupturing the amniotic fluid sac. And if either of those happened it was over, he would have to be delivered.

That was a long a frustrating day trying to decide what would be our best option. I received a blessing that day and the biggest thing that stuck out in my mind from is that he had said the option we should choose would be obvious. I couldn't imagine that at this point. Later that night our Dr. came to talk to us. The first thing that he said when he came in is that he thought the cerclage would be our best bet and he was ready to do it the next morning. I didn't even have to ask him. It is such a testimony builder and amazing feeling when answers to prayers come that quickly. Amazing.

(picture: hanging out on the couch at 27 weeks)

We spent our second pretty much sleepless night in the hospital. At least the beds are big enough that Chris could fit on the bed with me to snuggle me. It was so comforting to have him close. The next morning they got me prepped and ready to go. They wheeled my into a room and did the epidural(the next one I receive Chris will be there to hold my hand) and did the procedure. Longest 30 minutes of my life. I honestly was horrified. I am pretty sure it was on long constant prayer(that was the only thing I could do to keep myself calm). We made it out safely numb legs and all, they checked for contractions and there wasn't any happening. We are so blessed.

To bring you up to date- I am down. Down on bedrest... Keeping this baby boy in. I am not going to lie that the first few weeks were extremely tough. It was a huge life change to wake up each morning and not be able to get up to do pretty much anything. No where to go. Nothing but a long day of staying down worrying about every little thing i felt. I was emotionally

a mess.(I am not a crier but the tears seemed to flow at least a few times a day)

(picture: The shot Chris gives me once a week)

It is still hard, I worry about everything and some days seem like forever. These last 8 weeks have definantly been a trial, but in a way a huge blessing. I am still pregnant and our little boy is still safe inside and that alone is a miracle. I am a lot more confident now that we are past the point that if he did come his chances would be good for normal life. Once a week now I receive a progesterone shot. Lucky Chris gets to give it to me. They are to help calm my uterus and stop contractions. I still have them, usually only about one an hour. If they get more frequent I have medicine that I can take and it seems to stop them pretty quickly. One good thing about being down all day is that I get to feel him moving around so much. I don't miss a movement! And I love it. The stitch has held strong. We got it checked every week and have just barely now switched to every 2 weeks. Each appointment has been so reassuring and I just have to say that Dr. Housel is a very patient and wonderful man :)

(picture: 28 weeks outside for a second after appointment)

Things I have learned:

1.Prayer is so powerful- i knew this before but it has gotten me through this time.

2.Don't be afraid to ask for blessings- at one point I think I got a blessing a day for a few days. They were so comforting and each time brought such important guidance.

3.I don't have control over everything- there comes to a point when all you can do is put your problems into the Lords hands and trust that he has a plan. And trust me... He does...

4. My husband is amazing- I have always loved Chris. But this has brought on a whole new meaning. He has been the best. He takes such good care of both of us and has been my rock when I have been seriously emotionally unstable:)

5.Where would I be without my mom and family?- My family has seriously stepped in. At least one of them has been here pretty much every day. My mom cleans my house and makes me meals all the time. I can't imagine doing this without them.

6. I have such amazing friends- We have had so much support. From prayers being said in our part to the delicious meals that have been brought. At first I was so embarrassed to be receiving all of these meals and I still am a little, but it has been so nice and it honestly has made life so much easier.

7. Never let your faith be taken over by fear- This is easier said than done. I have had way to many mind games with being down this long. And it is so hard to not be fearful. Faith is all we have to hold on to and during our trials we need to hold onto it with all we've got!

Thanks again for all of the help and prayers that we have received. It is looking like I will start getting up a little more at the end of May. We are still praying for a full term baby and the end is looking a little closer( I am at 30 weeks now). We have a lot of cute pictures of him from our many appointments but I am not around a scanner... So some day they will get on here. Pregnancy is amazing. It is such a gift and I am not taking one day for granted.

Movement

I have started feeling some of what I thought was movement for some time now but I wasn't sure. Then about a week ago I knew it was him. I was up walking around the house cleaning and felt this little pitter pats in my tummy. Chris had just left for work and i paused when I felt it. It stopped as soon as I had even realized what it could be. Then a while later that day I felt it again. I hurried and sat on the couch. And lifted up my shirt. It felt like it was strong enough that I could see it. And sure enough I looked down and there was this little movement. Such an amazing feeling to see it from the outside while feeling what I thought was my baby. And I was right! A couple of nights later on March 5th I started to feel it again while Chris and I were watching some shows I hurried and grabbed his hand and put it on my stomach. I had been telling him for quite some time by now that I was pretty sure I was feeling him. And we had have him try and he never could... But this time he did! He felt our little man squirming around. Chris was so excited and just wanted to feel him again and again~ It was so short but I was so happy that he could finally feel the little life we had created together. Feel what I could feel... We could experience it together. He actually felt him a couple of times that night and it was so special. I will never forget how much love I felt at that point for our little boy and for my sweet husband.

Blessings...

Please don't feel like you need to read this all. I just needed to get it on here mostly for my record keeping. If you haven't heard already we are pregnant! The due date is July 14th. We are so excited and can't wait to meet this little one.

November 8th, 2009...

Was a Sunday morning. I woke up, took a pregnancy test and watched it with hopeful eyes.... Positive!!! It was a very light line, but it was there. I have seen way to many negative tests and this one was the most positive than I have ever seen :) I couldn't stand to wait to tell Chris so I ran into our room practically throwing my pee stick at him. He looked at it for quite a while.... The line was so light that he kept asking me if I was sure. We had been trying for what seemed like forever. Turns out that all we needed was to throw a little Clomid into the mix :) Our excitement was so hard to hide. I couldn't believe that I was pregnant, there was some sweet little spirit growing inside of me right then! That day at church all we could do is smile every time we caught eyes... We are going to be parents, what an amazing blessing.

Our excitement quickly turned into fear. I had been having a pain in my lower abdomen since that past week. And it seemed to be getting worse. It was hurting so bad that I couldn't sleep, if I did get to sleep I would wake up every couple of hours from pain. I had to sleep on the couch and spend half my day in a warm tub to help it stop aching. After getting a positive pregnancy test it made me even more nervous about the pain. Was everything going to be OK with the baby? So after a blessing from my Dad and Chris we headed to the ER at 1 am.

Our First Ultrasound: Little Dot:baby(5 1/2wks), Large black spot: Cyst

At our visit to the ER they took us back right away. Took my blood, and then decided to do a couple of ultrasounds. For one of the ultrasounds they had to have my bladder completely full. Long story short the ultrasound tech was there right then, so they needed me ready right then. So instead of just an IV they needed to give me a catheter. Sick... All I have to say is that it burned. Bad... After a very uncomfortable ultrasound we went back to our room. The nurse came in pump me even more full of fluids. But she said that they were good for me and my baby... Just hearing her say that made me a little teary. I had a little baby in me. Still hard to believe. The doctor also came in to tell us what the ultrasound had shown. - NOTHING- I was fine, (not really) and it was to early so they couldn't find the pregnancy. So he sent me on my way with lortab and told me to go see my OB to make sure it isn't an ectopic pregnancy.

A couple of days later we went to my OB (which I love). The second he put the ultrasound on he saw it. A big old cyst. His comment was that he wasn't sure how they missed it, unless they thought it was my uterus instead. Dang ER people! It was still to early to see where the baby was at. So I made an appointment for the next week. He sent me home with percacet(spelling?) and to go get my blood drawn to make sure my HCG levels are doubling. My numbers doubled- huge relief. That was a very good sign. The next week we got to see the first glimpse of our baby: a little dot. It was in the right spot- not ectopic, and the cyst didn't seem to be interfering. We were so in love. It made all of the pain I had so worth it :)
5 1/2 weeks:

I wish I could say that the 3 weeks in between these appointments went fast. But they didn't. I can't believe how long they seemed. I was stressed the whole time that something would go wrong. I pretty much am a worrier... And my cyst was still hurting a lot. I didn't work for about a month. It was so nice that we were still living with my parents. My sweet mom took such good care of me, and always had meals for me to eat. I started to get pretty nauseous around 8 weeks. Such a gross feeling.... It is crazy how much i love sleep at this point. I am learning that growing a baby is hard work! It was nice to see something growing in the little hole that we saw at our last appointment.

8 1/2 weeks:

11 1/2 weeks:

We saw our sweet little bean moving around for the first time! He was sleeping at first, then the Dr. shook my tummy and he started squirming all over. It was the cutest thing I have ever seen. It was so exciting to be able to tell where the head was and little arms and legs. I think it is such a weird feeling to see the little baby moving around on the ultrasound and not feel anything moving around inside my tummy! Pregnancy is amazing... At this point I was sooo looking forward to the 2nd trimester. I am so tired of being nauseous all the time. But at least the cyst is not causing me as much pain. More like a dull ache most of the time. At this appointment Dr. Housel said that it had gone down by a alot though. So that is great! Also we all had a good laugh cause in our picture he printed out it looks like our baby is flipping us off... I guess that is what we get for waking him up :)

I remember when I took this picture I felt so large. I think I am like 13 weeks here. But I have been this big pretty much since I found out I was pregnant because of the cyst. And now the cyst is going down the same time as the baby is getting bigger so I guess I won't get a skinny "before" picture at all...

15 1/2 weeks:

Hello 2nd trimester... As soon as I hit 14 weeks I was hoping all those crappy symptoms would have disappeared. It didn't quite work that way. But right around 15 weeks the sickness seemed to be fading away. And the pain from my cyst seemed to be gone so I was hoping that was a good sign. Because my cyst had gone down some we actually went the full regular 4 weeks in between our appointments. It seemed like forever! Part of the reason could have been that Dr. Housel had told us that he could probably tell us if it was a boy or a girl at this appointment. Neither of us really had any idea what the baby was. I have been having weird dreams, and in one of them my baby was a puppy. So I am not going by any of those. When we went in the first thing that we saw was something that looked like some little BOY parts. I was surprised, Chris was glowing. We are both SOOO excited! Our Dr's quote was " I will be very surprised if that turns out to be a girl, but we are still in the receipt phase. If you buy something make sure it is returnable."

There was so many cute profile shots on the dvd but he didn't print any. So sorry, you just have to look at his manhood instead.

The Dr. didn't say anything about the cyst and we were to excited to even think about it. But I am taking that as a good sign. Everything looked very normal(which = a little less worrying)

Here is Chris: So proud to be having a little boy!

My little tummy at 16 weeks... I swear that in real life I look bigger than this.. I feel so huge already, this may be tmi but my belly button is already poking out! sheesh...


Here are a few outfits we went and bought that same day we found out it is a boy. We couldn't resist getting at least something(we kept the receipts-just in case).

We feel so so blessed. To be pregnant in the first place. Then for everything to be going well with the cyst going away, and for our little boy to look healthy and strong. What more could we ask for. We can't wait till July 14th. But will enjoy the journey along the way. Each appointment has been so exciting and amazing. I am already so in love with this little guy, and even more in love with Chris.

Valentines Day

Valentines Day was on a Sunday this year. So it was nice to just have the whole day that niether of us had to work. We went to church and then made a huge thing of nachos after. We hung out all day and watched shows and played games. I had bought stuff to make Chris a yummy dinner but we were still to full at dinner time so we decided not to make anything and just did dessert. It was a lazy day but it was fun to be able to spend time just together. We probably won't have many nights like this once our little one comes so it was nice. Chris got me these very pretty flowers. We decided that we should not worry about doing any gifts since there are plenty of things in the semi-near future that we would be needing our money for. I love my sweetheart and I know our love will just continue to grow as our family grows.

My 24th Brithday!

I am offically the big 24... My next birthday I will be 25! Oh no! Time goes way to fast.
For my birthday I decided I wanted to go to Texas Roadhouse cause steak has been sounding sooo good.

I got so many nice presents. Things to put in our house and clothes that will hopefully fit me for a while. Chris got me 2 very nice coats. I have been needing a really good water proof coat. And now I have 2! Although I think the best gift may be that I am feeling less sick. Oh and that I have this amazing little baby growing inside of me.

My mom made me my cake. Marble is always delicious. My little cousin wanted to help blow out the candles on my cake with me. We did pretty good! I think we got them all on the first blow :)

Pretty crazy to think that my next birthday I will be a Mommy!

Christmas

What a nice picture huh? he he.. This is Christmas Eve. We always open one present that is always pajamas. I love it.

Christmas was good this year, but I don't feel like I was quite like myself. I was so nauseous from being pregnant. I swear even if i kept eating all day I was still sick. So annoying. Good thing this little one will be worth it! Here we are on my mom and dads bed ready to open our stockings. We always do this first thing in the morning. We are getting so big it is getting hard to all fit. It was so fun having Ana here for her first Christmas, she loved it all. Don't we all look beautiful, we just woke up.
Chris did the sweetest thing for me this year for my stocking. Instead of stuffing my stocking he just put little clues for where each present was hidden. Some of them were pretty tricky but I found them all. Poor Chris thought I didn't like it, but really I did. I was just so sick that morning that I was ornery. I really loved it, I couldn't ask for a sweeter husband.

Ana was so cute with all of her toys and wrapping paper. It got me so excited for next year, when I will have my own kiddo here!

Brinker thinks we are crazy and for some reason thinks he needs to lay right where all of the wrapping paper goes. He fell asleep under our huge pile.

We didn't take very many pictures this year. Mostly it is my fault cause my mom wanted to but I just kept saying that I didn't feel good and I didn't look good so not to take any! Notice the mean side of me all of the sudden? I wish I wouldn't have been so ornery. Cause now that I am trying to post we don't have hardly any pictures. Just the ones from that morning. I didn't get any from when I was all ready for the day!

Sean had a great idea this year to have a mustache Christmas. Yuck! All the men in our family grew out there facial hair and surprised us by shaving it all off that morning except their mustaches. They decided that since all of their childhood pictures there dads had them that they should have them for Ana's first Christmas too... I hope it is out of their system, I don't want a repeat of that next year :)

To cute to not post: Little Ana in her Christmas Dress!