24 Weeks!

Well, there's no denying the bump now!

I was getting ready for church this morning and realized I have ONE skirt

that fits me still!  Ahh!

It happened so suddenly, guess that means I need to go shopping :)

 



And, to my dismay,

my belly button is poking out now!!

 



 

I am FINALLY 24 weeks, and that means viability!!!

Meaning a baby can, if worst comes to worse,

survive outside the womb.

Being a labor/delivery nurse and seeing all the sad things

that can happen during a pregnancy,

It was hard for me to get super excited until now.

I felt like I was holding my breath until reaching this point.

That definitely doesn't mean that everything's going to be

perfect from this point on, but it's still an exciting milestone to reach :)

NOW I feel like I can start thinking about my nursery!  And

that's exactly what I did last night. 

I cleaned out all the junk we'd been storing in our spare bedroom

and had fun organizing babe's adorable little stash of goodies!

Oh my goodness, I would of course love a boy,

but just look at all those cute little frilly dresses,

it melts my heart!

 

Though most of this time is exciting, I'm now also starting to feel

the uncomfortable-ness of pregnancy.

1.  I have to roll out of bed

2.  I have HEARTBURN!  It's the most terrible thing in the world!

I've never experienced it before, but the second I get horizontal,

it feels like firey acid is oozing up my esophagus, it's a nightmare.

3.  I am a sloucher.  I have the worst posture ever, and this big

old bump in my abdomen is making that extremely difficult.

So I guess maybe that's a plus??  She's making me sit up nice and straight.

4.  Worst of all, I've been having a hard time catching my breath.

I know to some degree this is normal since everything is shifting around in there,

but that mixed with my sometimes hot temper and sometimes crazy pregnancy hormones

makes me panic!  I came home from Wal-Mart the other day bawling

haha because they had such terrible service that morning and half

of the produce bins were empty and I got so irritated

and frustrated, and that mixed with not being

able to breathe very well made me have a melt down.

I'm fairly certain Chris thinks I'm a nut job...which is kind of true.

 

Although pregnancy is not always a walk in the park,

I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Babe's little punches and kicks are getting SO strong

and each movement really feels like a gift.

I could lay on the couch for hours just watching and feeling.

Chris said last night that he doesn't know what I'm going to do to entertain

myself after my belly is gone.

Hmmm....I think a new baby will keep me plenty entertained :)

I cannot wait to meet this little girl!!!

Happiest Place on Earth

Chris and I had been counting down the days until our family reunion for MONTHS,

and the time finally came!

It was a loooong day of travelling after a long night of work,

but we finally made it to beautiful California!!

 



 

The first stop for our poor little pale faces was a stop

by the outlet malls to find us some new shades.

 

Then, of course, we had to stop by Baja Fresh, which Chris loves

and after introducing me to the delicious fast food Mexican,

I have found the love as well.

Chris was jealous because we both ordered burritos and mine

came out twice as big as his.

 



 

We spent the first few days seeing friends, hanging out in Laguna Niguel

with Chris's brother and his family,

and going on a fun double date with my sweet in-laws!

We went to a Korean BBQ restaurant, and to say that Chris

was in heaven is an understatement.

He went to Korea on his mission and is always craving

some good, authentic korean food, but it's

difficult to find in Oklahoma.

Well, we tried out this new place, and Chris swears

it was as good if not better than anything he'd eaten in Korea.

We also had a special surprise when the chefs and a photographer

came to our table and wanted to take pictures for a new ad.

They brought out all of their fanciest, most expensive meats

to take the pictures, and then gave it to us for FREE!

(Too bad it had to be after we had finished our real meal and were completely stuffed)

But it was fun, and if you're ever in LA, be on the lookout for those ads,

because we're pretty much celebrities  now :)

 



My sweet mother in law and sister in law threw me the cutest

baby shower!  It was fun to see friends and family,

and it got us SO much more excited about our little babe.

Unfortunately though, we opened presents on the lawn in the backyard,

and after just half an hour in the beautiful 80 degree weather,

our poor vampire skin got FRIED.

Luckily Chris' parents grow fresh aloe in the backyard

and I got to experience the gooey stinky fresh goodness for the first time.

 



I've never had dessert at Claim Jumper,

and Chris has been telling me since we've been married

that the Chocolate Chip Calzone is the most incredible thing in the world.

Needless to say, it did not disappoint.  So good!

 



 

After our fun few days with Chris's family,

MY family finally got into town from Utah!!! 

It was so amazing to see them, it'd been a year since I'd

seen any of them.

We spent our first day at Disneyland!

It was so fun to see how excited all the little nieces and nephews

were..... (And Chris, haha)

This was the first time that Chris and I had met our newest nephew, Haakon.

And WHAT a doll he is!  Too bad he and his siblings were all

so deathly sick the whole time, but I love his little

droopy sad face in this picture!

 

Chris and Haakon spent some quality time together :)

 



I'm not sure how much poor little Risa enjoyed her trip,

she was so sick and this is how she looked most of the time :)

Still so cute, though!!

 



Mama and Chris :)

 



My FAVORITE temple!  Apart from Timpanogas of course.

So beautiful!

 



Paradise :)

 



On the airport on our way home, I looked at my ankles,

and they were HUUUUUGE!
It must've been the week long of nonstop walking

at amusement parks.  Shocking....

Those sausages could barely squeeze into my shoes!

 



The last day in California left my poor Christopher broken :(

He was sunburnt, had scrapes all over from a little mishap

trying to climb a rocky cliff at La Jolla coves,

his nose was bleeding from a scab,

he had itchy rashes up and down both of his arms from

some weird sunburn/poisoning,

and just before leaving Seaworld, he popped a saltwater

taffy into his mouth that ripped out a huge filling :(

My poor baby!!

 



And for a bonus feature, my mama caught me giving little babe

a taste of the California sun,

and my belly looks like a little soccer ball!

 



 

Overall, the trip was absolutely amazing!

We had such a wonderful time seeing our sweet families,

we wish we lived closer to them!!

Little Kicks!!

I've been kinda sad lately cause I haven't felt

our little girl moving around yet!

I know that everyone is different and feel

the baby at different weeks, but I'm 19

weeks now, so hurry up baby!!

And that's exactly what I said to her last night

while we were about to go to sleep.

About two minutes later,

I thought I might have felt something!

And I had my hand resting on my stomach and the weirdest thing was,

I was thinking that I felt it on the outside too.

So before I started freaking out, I nonchalantly put

Chris's hand on my belly, and without telling

him what I thought I felt, he felt something too!

He swears that it was a legit kick.

I told him that it could've been my own pulse

(cause even now, you can still see my heart beating on my belly)

or just normal intestinal movements,

but he's pretty convinced he felt her.

So happy!

Who knows if that's really what it was, cause I've

never had a human being growing inside of my before.

But if it was, I need to remember this day!!

There hasn't been much since then,

but I'm so excited to start feeling her more regularly.

 

 

Doesn't Chris look SO happy here in this picture?

His sweet mama is throwing us a baby shower while

we visit California next month,

so though we're a little early,

we had to go and register!!

And it was so much fun,

though who knew how many choices there were

for baby stuff.

Kind of overwhelming, but it made us pretty excited

to get ready for this little baby :)

 



It's A......!!!

We finally found out the gender!!  And it's a........

 

 

Girl!!!!!!!

 

Oh hooray, this is the happiest thing ever!

I thought the day would never come.

I haven't been sleeping all week,

then we finally got to the appointment and they

were delayed by 45 minutes!

We thought we were going to die!

Ah, it's just the sweetest, happiest, most relieving feeling

to finally know what's been brewing in the belly

for the past 18 weeks.

We would be ecstatic with a boy or girl, but

there's something sweet about thinking

of a tender, precious little daughter

that Chris can dote on and be protective over :)

I was 99% convinced that it was a boy,

so it was quite a shocker when we heard.

Now we can FINALLY start talking about baby names!

We made a deal that we wouldn't discuss until after we knew the gender.

 

To announce it to our families, we filled party poppers

with blue and pink confetti and numbered them 1 and 2

accompanied with a poem that went something like this:

 

Summer's belly's growing, and soon it's going to pop.

So sit your booties down, and prepare your jaws to drop.

Grab yourself a popper; It's not what you would think.

Jot down your bets on paper; Will it be blue or pink?

So check the magic number, the most important clue.

We'll let you know on Friday if it is a 1 or 2.

Just be very cautious, Don't open the wrong one.

On such a special day, you don't want to look dumb.

Get the camera ready, don't forget a single piece.

We want to see your faces when you know if it's a.....

grandson, granddaughter, boy cousin, girl cousin, nephew, or NIECE!

 

I wish I could take all the credit for it, but the idea was pretty

much all Chris :)  He's so cute.

And he even helped me a lot with writing the poem.

So our families all got to pop their poppers and find

out the gender this afternoon.

(With the exception of my brother, Todd, whose poppers

unfortunately exploded in the mail!)

 

This whole thing is getting more real every day.

I feel like I'm just getting bigger and bigger

and can't wait until I can feel distinct movements.

Usually I think I feel something at night,

but I'm always half asleep and probably just dreaming,

or my stomach is just growling.

 

We couldn't feel more blessed.

We cannot wait for the day when we get to meet

this precious angel!

 

 

 

 

Here are some photoshoot bloopers....we had a little too much fun.

 

Completely missed the shot

Chris looks like he's hating life.

 

 My hand slipped off the string

 

Chris's crazy face trying to look excited

This about made me pee my pants haha

Chris's hand slipping

We ended up running out of poppers and resorted

to throwing confetti

 

Oh my husband

Aaannnd, we made a mess

 

 

 

 



February 14th and 14 Weeks!

Well, now I am officially 15 weeks!! 

But last week was so much fun with my Valentine

as we celebrated the 14th and being 14 weeks pregnant.

We recently had our first trimester screen and got

to see our little babe kicking and waving! 

It was the most amazing thing,

it ALMOST feels real now.

 

 

 

 

Valentines started with me surprising Chris with a cake.

And it's not your average cake.

It's the most scrumptious strawberry cake

made by the clerk at my unit at the hospital.

It's real, southern, delicious, homemade goodness.

And I've enjoyed almost all of it

because unfortunately Chris has decided to be

on a health kick!

He's crazy.  But he did splurge and enjoy a couple

of slices.

 

 

 

Then the next day we had a lovely candlelit

breakfast!

Crepes are one of our absolute favorite things in the world,

and we've become pros at making them.

 

 

Later on we tried out a new restaurant that's right on

the lake by our house and it was delicious.

 

 

 

 

 

When we were on our way into the movie theater

after dinner, it started snowing!!

Although I'm a Utah girl at heart,

I've never been a huge fan of snow.

But since living in Oklahoma and it happening so rarely,

it was such a treat and was the cherry on top

to our Valentines date.

 

 

After getting home we had some fun making chocolate

covered strawberries!

 

 



It was such a fun weekend with my sweetheart!

Family reactions!

Of course I was most excited to tell my sweet husband the exciting news! I thought that he would be expecting it but as you can see, he was pretty surprised! I love that you can see every stage of his reaction in these pictures: first excitement at a random present,

 then confusion,

and disbelief..

 then  finally happiness :) 

All followed by sheer terror at the realization that we would soon be caring for a tiny human being. He probably sat staring for a solid ten minutes. But all in all it was so much fun to share the joy with my Love!

A couple of weeks later we told my parents over FaceTime because we wouldn't be seeing them in person over the Christmas break, it was pretty tender. My mom was wanting this almost as much as I was!

We then told Chris's family during the holidays. I had been trying for weeks to think of a clever way to tell everyone, but fell short. We resorted to quickly throwing together the cheesy plan to have the number 7 written in pepperoni on our pizza. This will be their seventh grand baby. It turned out pretty illegible so it was funny seeing their confusion.

I'm so grateful for amazing friends and family to share this exciting time with!!

Ps- it looks like I can't upload video! Boo, why am I am technologically challenged?!