Christmas

Well, its been way too long since I've posted, but since I've got a sleeping baby boy, I decided I better get to it.
Today is Christmas and it was a great day for my family. Blake really surprised me with my gift - which I love! He got me a Willow Tree people nativity set. He also surprised me by buying candy and stuff for the stockings and actually stuffing them. This Christmas presented a few difficulties when it came to shopping and such - you know, with Johnny, so it was nice to have some Christmas surprises.
On Christmas Eve we went to a party with Blake's family. It was a huge turn out and was a great party. They did a Nativity scene with all the little kids and Johnny got to be Baby Jesus. That was a neat experience. I did laugh, however, because the girl playing the angel carried him in because "Mary" was like four years old and I'm sure that Johnny was at least half her size. (PS. At his two months appointment he was 23 1/2 inches long and 11 pounds and 12 ounces. That's the 72nd and 52nd percentiles, respectively.)
My dad also came up huge with some great gifts, although it wasn't a car, that's what my 17 year old sister got. And not just any car. She got a 2008 Hyundai Accent. Nice, new, shiny, and I'm excited for her. If anyone deserves it, she does, so no comments on her being lucky or spoiled or anything. :) My dad also got our dear doggy, Annyong, a giant bone, which she spent the entire afternoon outside eating. She brought it inside hours later and it was mostly gone.
Blake's mom got me a ton! and I mean A TON!! of scrapbooking supplies so I've got to get busy on that. I'm excited. I'm no good at it, but I'm excited anyway.

My dad came into town and was staying at a motel with a swimming pool so we packed up some key lime pie and cheesecake and all headed over there to go swimming. Including Johnny. I think he loved it - by which I mean he didn't cry. Also, I have got to point out how adorable I think Johnny's swim trunks and bathrobe is - and also how adorable I think my whole family is.
I think our camera had a hard time focusing with the water in the background, so some are poor quality. Enjoy the pictures, and Merry Christmas!
I sure wish I could figure out pictures on this . . . I thought for sure I had loaded like ten more.

Pictures

Here are some more pictures of Johnny. Things are busy, and I'm sure tired, but things are good. With a full tummy, he's a happy baby. The problem is keeping it full. This boy can really eat.

We got the new iMovie and you can make trailers with your video clips . . . which we have been doing. Unfortunately, our footage is pretty limited. Today I tried recording Johnny, but he's still not doing much so our movies may be limited to Annyong and the ducks until Johnny starts doing stuff worthy of a video camera instead of just a picture.

Johnny

Johnny"s been great. He"s happy and healthy and pretty much eats all day.
He was born the 14th at 8 lbs 5 oz and was 21 inches long. His size is impressive because I never got that big of a baby bump.....I never even bought maternity pants.
Anyway, enough chatter, Here he is!

40 Weeks

Tomorrow is my baby's due date. I really hope he comes. We have a doctor's appointment this afternoon and he had better have made some progress! I'll let you know how it goes . . .

Well. . . still no progress. Still at a 2 and 75% effaced. If there's no baby by our next appointment on Monday then the doctor will induce on Tuesday, so at an absolute maximum, one week till baby time.

Bleck.

Bleck. I'm kind of in a bad mood today.
Meh, oh well. Maybe I'll just go to bed early.
I woke up this morning really thinking that it was going to be a good day because I slept so well last night. Maybe tomorrow.

39 Weeks

Well, yesterday we went in for our appointment and the progress was . . . dilated to a two and 75% effaced. If that's sounding vaguely familiar to anybody it's because that's the same as last week. The very same as seven days ago. What this means is that the baby has been sitting around doing absolutely nothing for an entire week. Seriously? Get a move on, kid.

The official due date is exactly one week and I was kind of hoping he'd be a few days early. (My original wish was that he'd be a week or two early but we missed that boat.) Now I'm beginning to wonder if he will ever come at all. We have a Halloween party with Blake's family coming up and we already had a great idea for costumes but like I was telling Blake, I'm not sure we'll make it to the party if the kid is only a few days old. (I'm being a little bit dramatic. The party isn't until the 28th, but still, my friend just had a baby and she was ten days late. Ten days puts us on the 22nd which makes the baby six days old for the party . . .) we'll see what happens I guess.

Nine Months Pregnant

I came across a really funny article that was: You know you're nine months pregnant when. . . . If I didn't know before, I definitely know now because I agreed with every one of them.
We have a doctor's appointment today. I'm really hoping that something great will happen like me going in there and the doctor saying, "Wow. This baby is coming out RIGHT NOW!" Hey, a girl can dream.
Today is 38 weeks. Fourteen days. Last week I was dilated to a 2 and 25% effaced. Here's hoping for some real progress!



Back from the doctor . . .
Still at a 2 but now 75% effaced. Guess that's good. The baby won't be born tonight, but it's progress.

Nothing New

Here's a funny picture. Our dog likes to take things out her doggy door and this was a failed attempt. It's the biggest pillow in our house. Don't ask. I have no idea what she was wanting to do with it in the backyard.




Here' hoping the next post includes baby pictures.

Sleep

Sleep. Where are you? I didn't sleep last night and I ended up sleeping in until ten, and then at eleven taking a nap that lasted until 1:30. Needless to say, I did nothing productive.
Now it's looking like I'm going to have one of those days again. It's 12:50 and I just crawled out of bed. I'd been trying to sleep since 10:30 with no luck. Now I'm drinking hot chocolate and eating a roll.

Anyway, we had a doctor's appointment today. I am dilated to a 2 and 25% effaced. The doctor said that now that I'm 37 weeks, the baby could come any time and that it is really hard to predict. He did, however, say at the end of our appointment, "Ok, see you next week - if you haven't had the baby by then." Which got my hopes up - a ton! It was just a minute earlier he mentioned induction if the baby isn't here by 41 weeks. So really, who knows. But having a baby this week sounds a lot more fun than being pregnant for another three, so that's my plan. We'll see what the baby has in mind.
And I'm off to bed.
Maybe if I still can't sleep later I'll come back and finish the story about Annyong that I left so abruptly last time.

Three Weeks?

The crib has sheets, the car seat is in the car, all the clothes are washed and folded, a diaper changing station is set up and . . . and the baby is still tucked away for another three weeks. Seriously!? Time is really starting to drag. Let's go, baby! We're ready when you are.

Kicking Wing

Baby, I swear, if you do not unhook your foot from the inside of my ribcage you will be politely asked to leave. If you think I'm kidding, kick me again. I dare you.

Also, for all you who assured me that morning sickness goes away after the first trimester, let me tell you that mine didn't leave until well into the second. Also, it's back. Which is why I'm up at 6 am on a Saturday. My thinking is that if I start this early and eat super slowly for probably the rest of the morning, then I might not get sick. We'll see. I never got that lucky six months ago.

Come On, Baby

This may be the longest four weeks of my life so far . . . and we still have 3 1/2 to go.
Last night, (by which I mean like three hours ago) (It is 3:15 am right now) (Can't sleep). Anyway, last night I had a stomachache and the thought crossed my mind, wouldn't it be awesome if I went into labor and just had the baby and wasn't pregnant anymore??? And then I realized that it probably would not be awesome because we don't have a car seat and we'd be trapped at the hospital forever. But maybe that's no big deal.
Unfortunately, I think I just ate a bad french fry from dinner or something. Oh yes, this was my birthday dinner. Hello, world. I'm 22. Do I feel a year older? Funny you should ask. I feel many, many years older, but, as mentioned earlier, it's 3:19 so that may be the culprit.

Sleep well.

Four Weeks

Yesterday Blake and I played golf in our backyard - we played the version where you kick on of Annyong's tennis balls and try to get it into one of the many holes she's dug in our yard.
Speaking of Annyong, she's doing much better, I think. Here's what we think happened:

We started taking Annyong to the dog park and she absolutely loved it. One day we start noticing that her nose is runny and she's coughing. We did some research and came to conclusion that she had kennel cough from the dog park - even though she was vaccinated. Based on our research on the internet, we decided that since it is a viral infection, to just keep an eye on her while it runs its course. And then Annyong stopped eating. Or maybe she got her really high fever first, we're not sure. Either way, we took her to the vet on Tuesday. They were very concerned about her fever, gave her a shot to break it, and they said that her appetite would return when she wasn't so feverish. They were thinking by the next morning... yeah... no. Then they gave us some antibiotics just in case some of her infection (turns out it was bronchitis) was bacterial.
Annyong was still not eating, still shaking (we thought this was due to the fever originally) and still had a fever. After much debate, we took her back to the vet on Friday. She still had a fever, which the vet was most concerned about, although our main concern was that she wasn't eating- it had been nearly a week at this point. The vet issued more antibiotics and gave us some fancy wet dog food. Annyong, the silly dog, still wouldn't eat it.
Well, now we were very concerned. The dog looked terrible! Blake and I did some more research and found a few articles suggesting that the shaking was due to low blood sugar due to the silly dog not eating. So we decided to change that. For two days Blake and I would tackle Annyong (well actually, Blake did the tackling) and I would suck up this nasty dog food concoction into a bulb syringe and would squirt it into her mouth. We had to do this with water as well. The article also said that the fastest way to get her blood sugar higher was by giving her sugar, and they suggested maple syrup. We squirted that in her mouth as well.

I'll finish this story later.

Hungry Hungry

I cannot believe how much energy and how many calories my baby hogs. I'm always hungry and always tired. I'm up to more than one nap a day . . . and I'm not talking about little fifteen minute naps. These are serious, legitimate afternoon naps. Or evening naps. Or midmorning naps. I read an article about pregnancy fatigue and it said that it's your body's way of saying slow down. I giggled. Here's what I do with my days . . . nothing. I'm not working now so I just hang out with the dog and occasionally wash the dishes or clean the bathroom or something. There's not much more I can eliminate from my days.
Well, Four and a half weeks. And counting. Today our insurance kicked in so if he starts coming, I'm not stopping him. I would like it if he waited until the last baby shower that's on the 19th to make sure we get some last minute things, but after that I am going to be very anxious for his arrival.

34 Days

Well, after two days of work, the carpets in our house are finally clean. And the couches. It's been needing to be done for a long time and now it is and it looks great. Especially in our soon-to-be nursery. According to the instructions, for cleaning couches you were supposed to use special "upholstery" soap, but "upholstery" is an awfully fancy word for our old couches. Normal soap worked great as far as I can tell.
Well, poor Annyong. She had a stuffy nose, but we weren't too worried about it because she seemed fine other than that. She was running around, being her normal doggy self. But then we noticed that she wasn't eating as much and she definitely felt hot and feverish. But still she seemed fine other than that. Anyway, after much debate, we finally took her to the vet. Turns out she has doggy bronchitis. She had an incredibly high fever and congestion in her lungs and now has two weeks worth of antibiotics to take. I feel bad for delaying the vet so long, but she seems to be doing okay now. Except now her nose is draining, and it is disgusting! . . . We discovered her stuffy turned runny nose in the middle of the night and we ended up switching blankets.
If I may direct your attention to the right . . . 34 days to go! And that's if he stays in there. I am secretly hoping for a baby who comes a few day early because, hey, why not. Who wants to be pregnant for 41 weeks instead of 40, or in that case, 40 instead of 39. I had two friends recently who had babies. One was three weeks early and one was two. Both were perfectly healthy and normal and good to go. I guess that their due dates were miscalculated. . . I would love that.
Anyway, I'm thinking I need a nap.

Annyong

I feel like I'm always talking about my dog. I can't even imagine how often I'm going to talk about our baby!!

This is a funny video. When Annyong is told to "speak", instead she stomps her paw. Strange, I know. I don't know how it happened.



We are 34 weeks tomorrow! It's sure winding down! He'll be here before you know it . . . and before I know it . . .

The Hunger Games

Today I spent the entire day reading the Hunger Games. It was absolutely incredible!
I had a shower today with Blake's family. We got a lot of great stuff and a ton of new clothes! We may have more clothes than we need so hopefully we have more boys so that all the clothes can eventually be worn.

A picture for you: I try to work out everyday. Sometimes I don't, but I blame it on this . . .



My dog likes to hog my yoga mat. The whole thing.

Recent Happenings

Yesterday we took Annyong to the dog park. It was a lot of fun! Turns out our dog is a chicken! She did not like the other dogs and spent nearly the whole evening hiding under the picnic table . . silly dog. We went back today and it wasn't as crowded - yesterday there were probably 20 dogs - today there were only two others. Annyong finally warmed up and played with some. Hopefully she'll keep getting more and more comfortable with it. The silly dog acted like she's never seen another dog before.

At our most recent doctor's appointment the baby was measuring a little small. It's not a huge concern at this point because it was just the measurement with the tape on my stomach so the results aren't final but the doctor wanted to keep an eye on it and see me in two weeks rather than four to measure again and see if there were any changes. If things haven't changed, then they'll do an ultrasound to do a closer look. So really nothing to worry about now, but it's just enough to make me a little uneasy until our appointment, which is on Tuesday.

Good news for us! A lady Blake works with won tickets to a .38 Special concert this weekend, but she wasn't able to go so . . . she gave the tickets to Blake! On Friday, Blake and I are headed to Wendover for a free concert which will be pretty fun. I'm excited for the getaway.

So, about work. My last day is on Friday. On Monday my supervisor pulled us all aside and told us that we were overstaffed last week and to make up for the extra hours billed, we all have to take a day off of work this week. It made more sense for me to just be done a week early, but for some reason they thought it would be best for everybody to pick one day. I didn't have to work today, which was great, but I am now seeing how difficult it is to go to work for only two more days after being off. I'll make it, though. Thursday and Friday and then I'm officially unemployed and I am excited about it! There's so much stuff around my house that I want to get done that I just don't have the time or energy for when I'm working.

Speaking of which. Yesterday marked the seven weeks to go mark which makes today the first day of less than seven weeks. We're counting down, here at the Had Pad.
We've got a lot of fun stuff coming up that I'm excited for . . .
In chronological order . . .
My last day of work on Friday
The concert Friday evening
A baby shower with Blake's family on Saturday afternoon
Blake is off on Monday
Doctor's appointment on Tuesday
My birthday is coming up on the 16th and I LOVE my birthday!
On September 19th we have a baby shower with my family.
There are more I'm sure that I've forgotten and there are some that I don't even know about that are going to pop up.
Hope all is well with you. Enjoy your evening.

8 1/2 Weeks Left

Last night I had a dream that I had my baby and the whole time I was laying in the hospital and I kept saying, "This doesn't even hurt!" And then I woke up without a baby, uncomfortable, and realizing that, in fact, it would hurt when the time came. It made for a mildly depressing morning. And my nose is stuffy.

Things are going well over here. I have only two weeks left of work which is incredibly exciting. Our next doctor's appointment is on Wednesday. It's always nice to get updates on the baby - - and to get some questions answered. By the time four weeks has gone by, I always have a list of questions.

Venting Still

And if you do send this very huge very important request via text message (seriously, who does that) at a very inopportune time and I happen to forget (not my fault, as we already discussed) don't, I repeat, do not refer to you doing the job that was yours originally that was going to be done by us as a favor to you, but we forgot (again, see previous post, it happens) and you end up doing it yourself (like you were supposed to originally) do not refer to this as "bailing you guys out."

I'm not sure I want to stay in Logan for the rest of my life. I wish my family lived closer.

Farewell July, you've been a miserable month. Or maybe it's just been such a miserable week that felt like a whole month. Either way, August, welcome.

Ten weeks till baby time. Time to start getting serious about getting things prepared.

And to everybody else, I apologize for my passive-aggressive way of dealing with my frustrations - but sometimes that's about all you can do.

Just Venting

Just because Blake and I don't have kids, it doesn't mean we don't have responsibilities...or a life... or things we'd rather be doing.
And just because Blake and I are still fairly newlyweds and still getting our home and lives set up doesn't mean that we cannot be given any responsibilities. Where's the balance?
I blame that whole mess on the miserable week I had.

Things I do want: When we're all getting together for a barbecue and everybody else is bringing something - assign us something too. I can make a salad.

Things I don't want: For it to be assumed that we're the best ones to make last minute trips to Salt Lake and things of the sort. How does this always come to us? We might not have kids to put to bed, but I'd still like to go to bed. There are things I'd like to get done before going to bed. There are plans we've made, bad days at work, a whole host of reasons why I'd rather not. I feel like it's always: He's got a meeting for his calling, he can't, they've got all the kids, so they can't, she works tonight, she can't. What do I do all day? I'm a busy person too.

Also, If someone asks for a huge and very important favor but sends it via text message after an exhausting weekend out of town while on the long drive home, and I forget about it . . . I don't feel like that's my fault. Maybe, if it's that important you should call next time.

Anyway, sorry. It's been a bad day.

But I love you all and think you are all great.

Have a good night.

Sweet Tooth

I've got a sweet tooth right now that nothing has been able to satisfy. We had, at one point, a box of Mike and Ikes, but they've pretty much been devoured at this point. I was going to make some rice crispy treats and try that next. Maybe after this. . .

We had a fun long weekend. We went to my grandma's house to hang out with family for the 24th of July and for my dad's birthday. It was a good trip and our new car treated us well on the drive. Which reminds me.

We got a new car. On our last little excursion, our car broke down. We were in Logan Canyon, without cell phone service, which was a tiny bit annoying. Anyway, turns out the car is dead for good so we bought a new one. It's a 2008 Mazda6. We absolutely love it! It's been a real treat.

I have a last day of work picked out. It's going to be the 27 of August. At first I couldn't decide if I wanted to work right up until the baby came or if I wanted to take a few weeks off in between. The only reason I was hesitant to taking a few weeks is because I was afraid I would be bored. But I've been making a list of things I can do around the house and yard to keep me busy so I'm very excited about the time off.

Maybe I'll throw a party in my spare time. You're all invited.

Baby Stress

Please take a look to the right where it now says that there are 88 days to go before baby time.
I'm starting to feel a little stressed about getting everything ready for the baby before he shows up. I want to wait until after the baby showers to do major shopping, but I also want to start doing shopping now for several reasons: 1: I'm still at a reasonable size to be walking around stores 2: I want to buy stuff at yard sales that are going on that are not going to be going on in September and October 3: It's getting close and I would like to feel more prepared.
Other than that things are good. The baby's doing great, Blake's doing great, I'm doing great. We're just working, hanging out, you know, livin' the life here.

Here's Our Cute Dog

Well, when we have our baby, we"ll post some pictures of him. Until then, here are some pictures of our dog.

Our RockBand Pooch










This is us trying to make the bed. This is the dog who doesn't care that she's in the way.




She still hasn't moved



She's a cutie



Things are good here. Nothing new. Enjoy, all.

It's a boy!

So we went in for the ultrasound and everything looks great and healthy!

Well, it's a boy!



Isn't he so cute!






So, we're pretty excited here.
Everything looked great and healthy.

The other good news of the day is that Blake launched his wellness program today and it seems to have people pretty excited. We'll keep you posted.

Quick note

This is just a quick note to announce that by this time tomorrow, we will know if we are having a boy or a girl!

Counting Down

Hello, again. We are just recovering from our computer crashing. We lost everything, which is a huge bummer, but after a week, we finally got it back and can start rebuilding everything.

I had a job interview today. I would love this job, so we'll see. These are long days home alone, just me and the dog. I've been trying to stay busy doing yardwork, but I keep getting rained out. One day it was nice and I dug all day and we have nice little garden plot now.

Blake launches his big program on Tuesday. I'm pretty excited. Hopefully it's a huge success and doing employee wellness will turn into his real job instead of an on-the-side job while the real job is in the warehouse.

And speaking of Tuesday . . . We find out what our baby is! I am so excited! This month has actually flown by. I thought for sure it would poke along and everyday I would just wait to go into the ultrasound, but we made it.

It's nice being done with school. I gotta admit, though. I want to go back. I'm hoping we'll be in a position to do that next fall.

I'll let you know what the baby is . . .

Tree Branches

Well, the wind made a big branch fall off of one of our trees. It didn't hit the house, but it came awfully close - we're talking inches. I'll start this off by saying I'm sure glad it didn't do damage. I'm also glad that it's in the front yard because Annyong would probably try and bring it in the doggy door even though it's probably ten feet long and has a decent diameter.

Today we're at 17 weeks. On the 25th of May we have our ultrasound and we'll find out if it's a boy or a girl. I'm so excited.

I read this article about the second trimester and it talked about having crazy dreams and believe me, they have started for me. Last night I had a dream that our baby was a boy and the doctors put a blue bow on him. The doctors explained that the boys got blue bows and the girls got pink. But I was mad because I didn't want my baby boy to wear ANY bow. Kind of funny. According to the article about being 17 weeks along, the baby is 5 inches and weighs about 5 ounces. I'm starting to think that I can feel the baby moving. I'm never sure and it could be just organs rearranging, but it could be.

Now I'm just looking for a little part-time job for the summer to keep me occupied. I've been really bored the past two days without having class while Blake is at work.

Things I Love Today

It's 8:54 and so far I've had a very productive, very good morning.

Here are some things I love today:

Blake, who is at work right now working away for our cute little family and who I get to go to Salt Lake with today.
Annyong, the dog, who is outside enjoying the nice sunshine laying on our deck.
The nice sunshiney spring weather.
Our cute house, the bedroom that's being repainted, the front lawn that just got mowed, and the sprinkler system being put in back.
Our awesome, quarter acre, rectangle yard that is the ultimate yard for fetch for a dog. (Annyong loves fetch.) (Blake can throw a tennis ball all the way to the end.)
Our freezer full of strange meat packaged in butcher paper that I got from my grandma. We're testing some out today.
The thing we bought at Bed, Bath and Beyond with all the spices. It sure came in handy this morning when I needed some Marjoram. I totally had it. In fact, I had that, Basil, Oregano, and Thyme which I'm pretty sure I would not have bought yet as I do not use them often.
I love the website I found yesterday that takes me step by step through food storage and 72- hour kits. If you're interested it's foodstoragemadeeasy.net It's great.
My iPod that Blake bought me for my birthday and for all the good music he introduced me to, and for the awesome round of songs from shuffle all that have played this morning
Today, I love my baby. Today is the first day I feel pregnant instead of sick. There's a nice distinction there. I love that I am five weeks shy of knowing boy or girl and five weeks shy from halfway done.

There are many more. Weare pretty spoiled around here.

Nothing New Here

I wish I had some fun pictures to upload, but not much new has been happening.

School is out in two weeks and I am so excited. The nice summer weather has also been a huge treat. I'm recovering from a sunburn from being at a track meet with Blake all day on Saturday. The nice weather was so worth it, though.

All is well with the baby. We're fifteen weeks along now. Things have been pretty good. I'm not sick near as much anymore. I still like to squeeze naps in when I can, but I justify that by saying that I'm sleeping for two. Five weeks until we get to find out if the baby is a boy or a girl. I'm so excited. I'm ready to do shopping. I think we've pretty much got our names to our number one for boy and girl.

I keep having these weird dreams. Every time I go back to sleep after using the bathroom in the night, my dreams are pretty crazy. Last night I had a dream that I had twins - a boy and a girl and that there were all sorts of birth defects. A few nights ago I dreamed that the doctor was trying to see boy or girl during an ultrasound but they couldn't get a good view so we couldn't find out.

Last night we had a Mexican Fiesta with my family. It was fun and good to see Natee and Ty. He's such a cutie.

The biggest thing right now is just finishing up the school year. I'm so close. Other than that,there's not much new. The pregnancy has been great so far, we love our new ward, Blake's job is moving along - they're launching a program in May, the weather is finally good. We're starting on some yardwork. Our backyard is quite the mess. No complaints here.

Baby Names

For the past few days, Blake and I have been looking at baby names. We've got one in mind for a boy, but for a girl, we've got nothing! We still have seven weeks till we know, but at the rate we're going, we'll be naming her, if it's a girl, the day she's baptized.

Easter was good this year. I was hoping for some better weather so that we could do stuff outside. It was pretty cold and nasty.

Natee and Ty were able to come to my dad's house and we did a little party. It was fun. Annyong LOVED Ty! I think she's excited for her own little baby around. At one point, Ty was sitting on the floor playing with a plastic cup. Annyong sneaked up and took it from him. The look on his face was priceless. I guess nobody has ever taken anything from him before. Annyong was just a few feet away with the cup in her mouth, tail wagging, just begging for six-month old Ty to come chase her. This happened several times. We kept giving Ty new plastic cups to keep him happy and Annyong kept pilfering them.

Conference was good. I didn't listen to as much or as well as I would have liked. I think I'll have to go back and listen to some talks. There's still a long time till the Ensign comes out.

I decided I've just got to be better about some things. My two goals for this week are to make the bed everyday and to work out, at least a tiny bit, every day. I was so good about working out but then I started getting super sick and I lost it and have had a hard time getting back on track. I'm hoping that when the weather gets nicer it'll be easier to go to the Fieldhouse in the evenings.

All is well here. Good night.

Hello again

Well, hello. First of all, I'd like to direct you all to your right where you will see that there are 196 days to go.

We had another doctor's appointment yesterday and it went well. Things are going good. We heard the heartbeat just beating away at 162 beats per minute. Go little guy, go. There are still eight weeks till we know if it's a boy or a girl. I'm really looking forward to it.

At the doctor's, it was discovered that I had lost a pound since my last appointment so he gave me some medicine so I would not throw up and it has worked wonders the past two days.

Good news here. I haven't liked our ward at all. I've been saying since we moved here, "What are the chances they"ll change the ward boundaries?" Well, yesterday my visiting teacher called me because we weren't there on Sunday because she thought I might like to know that . . . They changed the ward boundaries! I couldn't believe it. I am so excited. And, even better, this new ward starts at 11"00 as well!

I'm hoping for some good weather this weekend because I want to get some serious yard work done. Currently, we have no grass in our backyard - just weeds that have been mowed in a sad attempt at a back yard. Hopefully that's something we can clean up this summer.

I'm excited for Easter this weekend, and that's another reason I'm really hoping for some good weather. It'd be nice if our families could be outside for the Easter dinner parties that have been planned.

I think that's everything.

Well .. .

Well, I decided to update this since I am home from school again feeling miserable from throwing up. Here's the thing. I have the world's worst cold, too, which is making it ten times worse. My throat is sore, but I'm throwing up, nonetheless, and it BURNS! I wanted to cry this morning while I was leaning over the toilet feeling miserable, home alone except for the dog who is no help at all. Oh well, they say morning sickness ends usually in the second trimester which puts me at about three or four more weeks.

Our little dog is recovering from her surgery. We had her spayed last week. Now we're just waiting for the fur to grow back on her stomach because she kind of looks like a goof. We also got her a microchip. It was only forty dollars. I think that's something they should look into for humans. I would like to know that we could find missing children, dead bodies, America's Most Wanted, etc. I think it's a good idea.

The other day, Annyong was laying on Blake's head. It was pretty cute.



The snow is starting to melt in our yard. Welcome, Spring! I need this. I don't think I can take another snowstorm.

Annyong is loving her doggy door. It's a huge hit! It's the best 58 dollars I've ever spent on a dog. Except, nowadays, when she's chewing on something she knows she shouldn't have, she bolts out the door with it before we can catch her. This happened yesterday with my underwear. Thanks, Dog, for dragging that across the yard.
Blake's doing good. He's just working away, nothing new there. I'm good, the baby's good, the dog's good. I think that's everybody.

When my grandpa would ask you were doing, and you said good, he would say, "Serves ya right." We've got everything we could ask for here. In fact, Blake got a $300 dollar bonus from work and we decided to buy something fun with it. We tried to make a list of what we wanted and there wasn't much on it!

This is my favorite family picture.




Oh yeah, I just remembered. I got an email about what our kid is doing at nine weeks along. I was very excited to read that the tail-looking thing is gone, the heart is up and going, and looks more and more like a human, which is good news, since both parents are human.

Alrighty, well, enjoy your day.

Ultrasound pictures!

Our first doctor's appointment was yesterday and it went really well. We got an ultrasound and everything looks good. When the image first popped up on the screen I saw what I thought was the baby. The doctor pointed at it and said it was my entire uterus then zoomed in like ten times and pointed at a tiny speck that was the baby. Things are good so far according to the doctor. Our next appointment is on the 29th. I'm excited to move things along. The due date is October 12. We had heard that Chinese calendars and pretty accurate at determining the gender so we looked it up. According to the calendar, it's going to be a boy. I'm posting some pictures of the ultrasound. There are two little plus marks and that is the length of the baby. There's a white blob and the top but that isn't part of it.





It was pretty funny during the ultrasound. The doctor puts the gel on me and he's looking around and then everything gets dark. It happens again and again. Then the doctor says, "You see that dark spot covering the picture? That's stuff moving through your intestines that is blocking our view." As if that isn't embarrassing enough he adds, "You must have just eaten lunch." It made me laugh. We were able to see the heartbeat. It was beating away and we could see it as a little flicker on the screen.





Meanwhile, everything else is good. We got a doggy door for our puppy and she loves it! We love it too because now she just comes and goes as she pleases instead of needing us to let her out. Annyong likes to bring in giant sticks from outside to chew on but she can never get them through the door. She also likes to just stick her head out the door and look around. She's a funny dog.

Blake's job is going well. He starts his first incentive program in the next week or so, so that's been exciting to see develop. I'm excited for it to become a full-time job. School is good. A week and a half till Spring Break. The semester is about half over. So far so good.

This is our cute dog cuddling with my leg

I'm back

I'm going to try to keep this updated. I just spent a lot of time making it pretty cute.

Well, I'm six weeks pregnant. The original plan for announcing the pregnancy was to tell relatives and close friends after the first ultrasound and to tell the world when we find out if out baby is a boy or a girl. What really happens is that I tend to tell people whenever it comes up. But Blake is just as guilty as me. We're pretty excited.

When we announced it to our families right as we got a positive pregnancy test, they asked if I had been sick. Four weeks into it, I had no symptoms. If it weren't for the positive test, I wouldn't have even guessed. But now, two weeks later, I am SO tired, SO nauseated, and SO SO sick of throwing up.

Here's the truth about morning sickness. It lasts all day long. All day long for two whole weeks - and counting. Oh well. We'll make it through. Besides the sickness, my pants are quickly becoming uncomfortable. I'm not sure if our baby is super huge or if the pants just bother me because my stomach has been so sick. Our first doctor's appointment is March 1st so we'll have some more news in just over a week.

Other than that nothing much is new. Blake has since graduated and is working at Thermo Fisher. Most of his hours are in the warehouse, but he is in the process of developing an employee wellness program with his degree in Exercise Science so hopefully that will become a full-time position.

I'm working on my last semester of school and that is exciting! It's been a good semester so far. My classes are interesting, I'm not working, and it's flying by.

Our puppy is doing great. She is so much fun and so cute. I told Blake that I hope our baby is as cute as our dog. She's a lab mix, but at six months I think she's just about full-grown, and she only weighs forty pounds. She's the perfect size dog.

I'm excited to find out what our baby is. I want to paint a cute nursery. Right now we have these really ugly curtains in the room we'll be using for the nursery and I told Blake that as soon as we know boy or girl, I'm replacing them with duck curtains or something.