Pregnancy Update

First Trimester

Well, I'm pregnant! That is for sure. There is no doubt about it. We were able to get our first picture of our little nugget and hear the heart beating crazy fast! Such a fun experience to have together.

I have also had "morning sickness" off the chain! I have to say that I have had a little clarity on why it was a good idea for me not to be teaching full time right now. There is no way that I could be a first year teacher and be as sick as I've been. I completely avoid the kitchen and can't stand the smell of any warm food. So far I've lost about 8 pounds and I wouldn't doubt that Jeremy has lost some weight too. He doesn't complain though and takes good care of us both. I'm really anti taking any medication, but have had to take a couple things to make this time bearable. I've been taking some B12 supplements and then Unisom which is actually a sleeping pill that helps with nausea. It works great but just half a pill knocks me out! I'm hoping this doesn't last too much longer! I'm dying to use the "I'm eating for two" excuse...especially with Thanksgiving coming up! :)

Month One

Month Two 

Month Three 

Jeremy is 23!

Jeremy's birthday! I love birthdays! I think it is so fun to have a day to celebrate someone. Especially when I love them as much as I love Jeremy. Unfortunately, Jeremy doesn't love celebrating himself as much as I do. He asked to not have a party or do anything big for his birthday. All he asked for was money for his surfboard fund and to go to a gas station for dinner....seriously! He kills me. But I gave him what he wanted!

He did get some surprises though. He had entered this thing online to get some free sports nutrition products and he won! The package came just before his birthday so I let him open it a night early.

He was pretty excited about all his free stuff!!!

Of course he got breakfast in bed...German pancakes, apple slices, and milk (all at his request).

Then, because we were up early and so excited, we opened presents in bed first thing after breakfast!

I got him some new board shorts, which only made him more excited to go to the beach!

I wanted to give him what he asked for, but it was too boring to just give money and not have things to open...so I got creative.

Money in a tissue box

Money in a candy box

And money in a DVD...he was confused when he unwrapped it because he knew we already owned this movie. :)

Of course I gave it to him in all ones so it would look like a lot more :)

He had to go to his research group after presents so I took the opportunity to decorate while he was gone. 

We spent the day just hanging out and relaxing (with some homework mixed in) before we headed to the gas station for dinner. I was very skeptical but he was happy and I was pleasantly surprised!

I also made Jeremy a new dessert I found on Pinterest...he liked it and happily ate the whole cake over the course of the next week!

Jeremy got lucky and got two birthday dinners. The next day (Sunday) we cooked up some steaks that were given to us. Jeremy loves meat so even though he had to freeze cooking them outside on the barbecue  it was worth the effort!

Happy Birthday Jeremy!

Let the countdown begin!

It might be a bit too early to have started a countdown chain, but I couldn't help myself. This chain includes a count down to December, to graduation/moving, and to Christmas. I think I might regret this but it gives me a little hope that time passes even when it feels like these big events aren't getting any closer!

Announcement!!!

Had to post this picture of our Halloween costumes this year...

That's right...there's a bun in that oven! 

Expected to be fully cooked by May 14th!

*Disclaimer: That was the announcement! The rest of this post is simply for my own records. But feel free to read :)*

Honestly Jeremy and I couldn't be happier! For those who know me I love kids! However I was perfectly content with enjoying other people's kids for quite awhile longer. I have been blessed to be an aunt since I was 5 years old and I have always had great examples in parents from the people around me. Seeing what it takes to be a parent is totally overwhelming and I think I just wanted to wait until I was older! But then Jeremy and I had a very spiritual experience. 

A sister in our stake gave a talk in our stake conference about receiving personal revelation. She told an experience about praying for an answer and her realization that she was going about it all the wrong way. As she explained that she had merely been "informing" Heavenly Father of her plan, I realized that I had done the same thing! I hadn't truly asked for guidance in my life plan, but instead had said, "Here's what I'm doing, just thought you should know." I think it's moments like this that Heavenly Father just smiles as he waits patiently for us to figure out that we don't have all the answers! After that conference Jeremy and I chatted and came to the conclusion that we had both felt the chastisement from the spirit. So we decided to move forward with efforts to truly seek guidance from the spirit no matter if that meant receiving an answer that didn't fit with our original plans. As we prayed we received answers! First, in regards to starting a family we felt that it would be "sooner than we planned". We also felt that I needed to make a visit to my doctor which ended up being a real blessing as they were able to find a small medical problem and we were able to get that corrected. After that visit I already felt so comforted knowing that because we had prayed with an open heart, we were receiving answers from the Lord.

 I was also able to receive an answer to my personal decision that I was going to teach in Idaho for a year before moving to grad school. I received an answer quickly, but it wasn't what I wanted to hear so I ignored it and couldn't bring myself to even say it out loud to Jeremy. I had just worked for four years to get a degree in teaching and was so happy at the time student teaching. Why would the Lord tell me not to pursue a job? I didn't understand. Finally, after some time, I told Jeremy, through my tears, that I received this answer. Talking about it with him made it more real and I knew I had to come to terms with this new plan. After a couple weeks I felt a little better and was just hoping that I would soon understand more of why this was to be. No sooner had I come to terms with this new plan did I have an amazingly perfect opportunity arise for a job. I immediately jumped on it, so excited thinking here was the real answer to my prayer! But I started to feel sick almost immediately. I called my mom and told her about this new job and how I was feeling and asked for some advice. She told me a story about a time that her and my dad were trying to sell their house. It wasn't selling so they prayed and felt that they should take it off the market. They decided they would the next morning. The next morning came with an offer on their house. Thinking this was the real answer to their prayer, they took the offer and sold the house. After doing so, things with their original life plan didn't work out the way they thought, causing them to have to move around until finally they were back on track. At that time, their old house was up for sale again for quite a bit more than what they had sold it for. Her moral was that if they would have listened to the answer they had received  they could have been saved a lot of headache. She didn't tell me what to do, but this anecdote was just what I needed to hear. I was putting my trust in the Lord and that was it. 

Without understanding the why, Jeremy and I moved forward with faith that we would be taken care of if we listened to the Lord and did all that we needed to do. Our new plan consisted of moving in December after graduation and being more open to the idea of children sooner than we planned, knowing that it would happen when it was supposed to. The doctor had said it would take some more time than usual. But, like so often, doctors are mistaken and they can't calculate the Lord's will. We were pregnant fairly quickly and aside from the shock and a little fear, were ecstatic! It was a fun secret to have together (even though it didn't last long before Tisha called after tapping into her sixth sense of knowing when people are pregnant) but now we are happy that the secret is out!

Tyler's Visit

Tyler came for a little visit to Rexburg to say goodbye to the place and people before leaving on his mission. We had a great few days playing in the snow, eating, and enjoying a little Tyler time.

We have a great backyard at our place that doesn't get used as much as it should. After is snows, I always look out the window and the ground is just covered in this perfect blanket of white that is just asking to be rolled around in. So that's what we did. We got suited up and took advantage of our last winder here!

We made a pretty sweet snowman...the boys weren't very experienced with this but they caught on fast.

I also had a blast making a snow angel...look how deep that snow is!

Of course the boys had to have a snowball fight...I stayed out of it and after taking a few pictures I went back in the house to get warm! :)

We also had a couple friends over for dinner while Tyler was here and ended the night making some fun Halloween treats that were left over from the Halloween party I put together for a class I was substituting for. I'm forever a kid at heart!

We also had our ward halloween party the weekend that Tyler was here. The Primary and Sunday School were in charge so I was pretty busy getting everything together. This left Jeremy to take on the challenge of making chili for the "chili cook-off"alone. He worked really hard and finally put those chemistry goggles to good use!

All in all, such a fun weekend and we are both really going to miss having Tyler around! He definitely gets the best little brother award! And even though Jeremy didn't win the chili cook-off, I thought it was delicious! And if I wasn't in charge we totally would have won the costume contest...more on that to come! :)