A lot can change in a year...

One year ago today,

we got the best news

EVER!

We found out that we were going to be parents!

We both had to work.

The results were supposed to come the day before,

but there was a mix up with my lab results.

I went to get my blood work done on Saturday

and apparently the worker sent them to some hospital rather than to our doctor.

So, they had the results from my Monday blood work,

but they needed to verify that the numbers were going up.

Monday they gave us a "Mostly likely positive,"

but we decided to hold off celebrating until we knew for sure.

I was really hoping to get the results on Monday because I didn't work on Mondays

and I didn't want them to call me while I was at work because I didn't want to tell my coworkers yet.

But, we didn't get the results on Monday.

Tuesday morning I was SO nervous that they would call while I was at work.

Thankfully, they called when I was on my lunch break!

I was running some errands,

in fact I had just left the bank.

I was getting into my car,

when the nurse called to tell me that they had located my lab results from Saturday,

and I was PREGNANT!

Words I thought I might never hear!

I immediately called my sweet husband,

who didn't answer.

lol!

I don't think it was too long after that he called me back and I gave him the good news!

That night we went out to dinner to celebrate.

While we were at dinner our families kept texting us to find out the results.

We told them that we would do a Google Hangout at 6:30 and answer questions then.

We enjoyed our meal,

we thought and discussed the new and exciting things that would happen in 2014.

Then we went home and told our parents and my siblings 

(they were all home since it was Christmas Break, expect my sister on her mission)

the good news! We held up signs that said, "We are FINALLY pregnant!"

Then we called all of my sweet husband's siblings to tell them the good news!

It was an amazing way to end the year!

This year has been so great!

From all the fun things that pregnancy brought into our lives, to vacations, to house projects, to family visits, to welcoming our sweet girl into the world. This year is definitely one of the bests! Our Christmas letter sums up the year pretty well, so I thought I'd include that!

Dear Family and Friends,

               

We’ve had a wonderful year and hope your year was also equally wonderful! On New Year’s Eve 2013 we learned that we were expecting our first baby! In November 2013, we started the In Vitro Process. It was a crazy roller-coaster ride, but meeting our sweet girl made it ALL worth it! Sweet Girl joined our family September 5, 2014.

                In preparation for Sweet Girl to come we worked very diligently on our home so we wouldn’t have too many projects left when she arrived. This year Sweet Husband remodeled our guest bathroom, installed a new patio (with the help of my mom, my dad, my brother-in-law, and my sister), and I built a window seat bookshelf for the nursery.

                We also took one last vacation before we had kids. We were able to go to Hawaii, it was a great trip! We were able to stay with my cousin, who is living in Hawaii teaching at BYU-H. We really enjoyed such a relaxing vacation. We were able to go to several beaches, eat good food, see Pearl Harbor, snorkel, take a sailboat ride, hike, and Scott surfed.

Sweet Girl—3 months—this year was really neat experiencing and savoring everything about pregnancy. Sweet Girl was a little wiggle worm and we loved to feel her kicks and movements! She continues to be a little wiggle worm, she loves to kick and play with her hands! Sweet Girl has us wrapped around her little finger. She is the sweetest little thing. She is such a good baby! Some of her other loves are family, eating, sleeping, sticking out her tongue, smiling, and riding in the car or stroller (as long as they don’t stop).

Sweet Husband—is still working at the Base with the F-16s. He was able to go to Portugal for three weeks for work. We missed him terribly, but he had a great time and we were glad he was able to go. He is a wonderful dad and an amazing husband! He got released as the Scoutmaster of our ward and was called to be the Varsity Scoutmaster, so now he works with just the older boys. He seems to enjoy it and does a great job! When he’s not working or helping the Scouts he enjoys working on projects, currently he’s working on a quadrotor.

Me—is excited to be a mom and is too humble to write her own section of the Christmas letter. She began the year working at the eye doctor but left to be a stay at home mom. When she’s not taking care of Sweet Girl, she’s crafting or sewing. She was a good sport not being able to wakeboard this summer, but she’s looking forward to taking it back up next year. She works with the young women in our ward and has lots of fun with them and is one of the ward organists.

We hope you have the Merriest Christmas and the Happiest New Year!

Love,

Us

Blessed

The weekend before Christmas was bittersweet.

Saturday was our sweet aunt's funeral.

It was a beautiful service for a beautiful lady!

She truly was an example of Christlike love.

For our Christmas lesson in Young Women's we each gave a mini lesson on the names of the Savior.

Mine was "The Prince of Peace",

while researching it, I found this quote

from President Heber J. Grant, "His Peace will ease our suffering, bind up our broken hearts, blot out our hates, and engender in our breasts a love of fellow men that will suffuse our souls with calm and happiness."

I think our sweet aunt found this peace. She exuded love for others!

Several people that spoke said that she was their best friend and I think everyone thought that.

She had an amazing quality to make you feel like you were the most important person!

We are so grateful for her and for her amazing example of love to us!

Here is a picture of our sweet aunt with out little one

I only took a few pictures at the funeral, 

this one of our sweet girl meeting her Great Grandpa with her Grandma.

 After the service they had food for everyone that came!

Several people talked about how she always fed everyone,

she was a really good cook,

so it seemed almost fitting that they served everyone.

It seemed like something she would want, it was very sweet.

We all particularly liked the desert table...lol!

 After the burial all our of family headed up to our home.

The next day was our sweet baby girl's blessing.

My sweet husband did such a wonderful job!

 Our sweet girl looked SO pretty in her blessing dress!

My sister captured these sweet faces of our little one.

 After Church we had copy cat Cafe Rio Burritos,

it was delicious, if I do say so myself.

These boys were dumping out the juice from the crock pots, 

it cracked me up how it took all of them to do so, they did do a very good job!

 Our sweet girl was very blessed to have all 

(but one--he's on a mission) of her uncles in her blessing circle and both her grandpas!

 All of her grandparents!

These are pictures of when we were all hanging out Saturday night.

We had a great time all together!

 I love how she spelled this:

"Have a holy jolly Cerismas"

So cute!

Three Months!

Three months!

Can you believe it?!

Time is sure flying!

She turned three months the day my sweet husband got home!

She is so fun!

I think she's been fun her whole life, but each month there are new things that are fun!

This month she LOVES to wiggle!

She loves to play with her toys and is getting really good at using her hands!

She talks up a storm these days!

Getting a picture of her without some part of her being blurry is quite a feat,

she just always wants to be moving.

She gives the biggest, cutest smiles.

I think she remembered Daddy as soon as she woke up and he was home.

It helped that we did a Google Hangout with him everyday while he was gone

and I showed her his picture a lot too.

I'd rather just keep thinking that, even if I'm wrong.. lol.

She loves to look at the Christmas tree and at a nativity that my sweet husband's coworker gave us,

it uses candles to make it spin, it's pretty neat.

It looks similar to this one

She sleeps and eats well!

She's growing so much!

We didn't have to go to the doctor this month,

but from my super exact weighing her on our home scale she weighs about 13lbs.

We sure love this little girl!

Even though she's only been on earth for three short months, 

it's hard to remember her not being here!

Christmas Tree Hunt 2014

Growing up, one of my favorite traditions was going to find our Christmas tree!

And some of our favorite quotes come from Christmas tree searching adventures,

In a squeaky two-year-old voice, 

"How about this one, Dad?!" (pointing to a sage brush)

"Wrong kind, Bud."

Several years back my Mom started reading The Forgotten Carols to us each time we would go.

We read the entire book and listened to the songs in the time it took to drive and find the perfect tree.

My Mom and I got tags for trees on Black Friday 

(not that you have to wake up early to get them, we just happened to be in the city where you buy them on Black Friday),

but we weren't able to go and get one during the three weeks Sweet Girl and I were there.

It just never worked out.

But since my Sweet Husband and I were staying there,

we thought it would be fun to go and get one then!

It was a little different, we read the second book in the Ugly series, Pretties, instead...lol.

It was a great time!

During our search I spotted this guy!

My Sweet Husband informed me that I am going with them next year for the hunt.

 We got out and looked at several trees before we found this beauty!

I love my silly husband!

 Good looking too!

Tiiiiimber!

I love our little family!

And I think this picture is pretty darn cute too!

Work Trips

 For the first part of December, my sweet husband was still out of the country.

We stayed at my parents house until the day before my sweet husband came home.

That last week we ran some errands with my Dad and Grandpa,

sweet girl really is a champ in the car! 

 Sweet girl did her fair share of cuddling

 We visited

 Made funny faces

 Sweet girl loves to look herself in the mirror, 

although I don't think she realizes that the person she is looking at is her yet.

 Then we drove home on Thursday 

so I could play for my sister while she sang at our Relief Society Christmas Activity. 

She did a beautiful job!

The next day we unpacked and decorated for Christmas 

so that it would be festive when my sweet husband finally got home!

He was able to catch an earlier flight so he got home a little earlier than he was supposed to,

which was really nice! However, it was still 11 PM at night, but way better than 2 AM!

My sweet husband brought back this adorable beenie for our sweet girl!

The next week, my sweet husband had ANOTHER work trip!

BUT we were able to go with him on that one, so that was nice!

We got to spend pretty much the entire week together, 

which was so great after being apart for three weeks!

We left Monday night for the trip and drove as far as my parent's house.

We stayed the night there,

then in the morning we continued heading north.

We met up with my husband's younger brothers and one of our sister-in-laws for dinner,

it was fun to eat and chat and laugh.

Then we headed up to our friends' house and another friend and his family were there too.

It was fun to catch up with them!

All the men were on the same floor their freshman year of college,

it's crazy to see them all married with kids now!

I knew all of them when they were freshmen in college,

they have grown up but they are still fun and crazy!

Sadly, I forgot to take pictures at either of those places! I kicked myself after I realized!

I swear I realize 20 minutes too late all the time!

Then we headed up to our hotel.

The next morning while my sweet husband was at his work meeting,

sweet girl and I headed to my grandparent's house!

 We had fun visiting with them and with my youngest sister!

 While we were there, some of my aunts came and visited with us as well!

It was fun to see them too!

 Then we went and had lunch with one of my second cousins!

She is so sweet and I was so excited to show her our sweet girl because she has been one of our biggest supporters throughout our journey to become parents!

 She held our sweet girl the whole time we ate! And Sweet girl watched EVERY bite our cousin took! Lol! I think she is definitely ready for some baby food! I will be asking about that at our next appointment for sure!

And despite this picture, sweet girl had a good time.

She was just super tired by this point, she had fallen asleep but woke up when we took this picture.

 My youngest sister came to lunch with us too, 

but left early to go with the sister missionaries to teach a lesson.

After she got back we went to the fairy village with my sweet grandmother.

 Isn't it so cute?!

Apparently the lady that does it changes it out for different holidays and such.

It even had lights! I wish we could have gone at night too.

 We needed to pick up my sweet husband from the hotel since we had the car,

so on our way up there we stopped by my aunt and uncle's house and visited with them.

It was fun introducing Sweet Girl to my cousins who hadn't met her yet.

 Another one of my aunts and her girls came over too and one of her boys.

 One of my uncles and Sweet Girl

 Shout out to this birthday boy!

It was his birthday, so we celebrated with cake and ice cream while we visited!

 Then we picked up my sweet husband and went to dinner with his uncle!

It was delicious!

At the hotel afterwards, Sweet Girl was giving awesome smiles to her funny aunt!

Apparently all the smiling tuckered her right out!

Daddy too, but I think that was mostly jet lag still lagging around.

The next morning we got some really sad news that my sweet husband's sweet aunt had passed away.

So Sweet Girl wore the flower our sweet aunt gave her in her honor.

She was a great lady and will be missed!

She was always a huge support throughout out journey as well!

She was the one who lined us up with the first birth mother that contacted us!

We are so grateful for her and for her wonderful example of Christlike love!

We love you Aunt Lori!

We drove back to my parent's house that day and headed home the next day after we found our Christmas tree. More on that to come!