We have a graduate!

Well, folks, the day FINALLY came that Kyle graduated!! I feel like we have been in school for foreverrrrr, but really the end did come eventually, kind of. He still has to do student teaching next semester, but other than that he is a college graduate! I am so incredibly proud of him. He has worked so hard over the years. It was hard [for both of us!] sometimes and he definitely wanted to give up sometimes, but I'm glad he worked through all of the homework, tests, busy work, projects, late nights, early mornings, and all the other things he needed to do in order to finish school. 

 His mom and dad came up for graduation. They are so proud of him too. He is the second one of his siblings to finish college! It was fun to get to spend some time with them.

My mom and grandma also came for his graduation. 

The Hinckley Building is where all of Kyle's classes were.

I am SO happy that school is done. I figured out that in the last 16 months I've only had about 9 weeks off of school! It feels so nice not having any homework to worry about, but I think I might go crazy with nothing to do! Today we had lots of errands to run which kept me busy, but what am I going to do with myself the rest of the time before baby comes? I think I'll have to visit the library and find some good books to read in order to occupy my time. Any good book suggestions?

No official belly picture this week, but you can see from the graduation pictures that this little dude is growing. He still loves to sit as high as physically possible, leaving me with minimal lung expansion room sometimes. My ankles are still swelling. Now that school is over I don't have much to do, so I'm staying off my feet more which has helped a little with the swelling. We reached official 35 weeks this weekend. I can't believe only 5 more weeks until we officially become a family of three. I was telling Kyle it's crazy that its been just me and him for two and a half years and now there will be a third small human being that joins us. This baby boy is going to change our lives in SO many ways!

Early arrival?

33 weeks and 4 days!

Seriously, the weeks are flying by! Finals week is next week and then Kyle graduates!! Can I get a "woo! woo!"? I think that being so busy with school and work have been a large reason as to why the weeks have been flying by. I'm worried that once school is out, I'm done with work, and I'll only be getting bigger that the last 5 weeks are going to go by a bit slower than the others. Or maybe they'll go faster since I'm slightly a little scared of the day this baby has to leave my body! 

A few more weeks means a few more fabulous pregnancy symptoms. I'm starting to feel BIG! It takes quite the effort to get off the couch and I'm not even going to get started on getting out of bed. I wake up every night without fail between 2 and 3 and have to get up to go to the bathroom. My husband will attest that I love my sleep, so waking up every night just to go to the bathroom always leaves me feeling a little annoyed. Lately this little dude has decided that my belly is currently not providing him with suitable living accomodations and he has decided he also needs my rib cage too! He sits SO high some days. I try to push him down and he pops right back up. Sometimes I have to arch my back just so that my lungs have enough room for me to breathe! Some days I have killer acid reflux disease! I feel like I've swallowed icy hot and it is miserable. And most recently I seem to have lost my ankles! Seriously, check out these cankles!

This day I was on my feet all day and you can see the indent that my sandles left on my sausage feet. Since I didn't have a chance to get off my feet both sides are pretty bad, but most days just my right foot and ankle swells and my left one looks fine. The contrast between the two looks so funny! I asked the doctor about asymetrical swelling and he said it just means the baby likes to sit on my right side more than my left. Being on my feet all day combined with the heat is not helpful when it comes to the swelling. I always tell Kyle that you're supposed to have cute feet in the summertime, and these cankles are definitely not an attractive summertime physical feature!

But besides all of those lovely symptoms, I am still feeling pretty good! I had a doctors appointment yesterday and either this little boy is going to be one big baby or he will be a week early. I guess I have been measuring about a week ahead most of my pregnancy. The doctor said that at this rate, if the baby stays in until my due date he will be at least 8 pounds!!!! Orrr he could come about a week early. Can you guess what my vote is for? So I decided he is going to come a week and one day early. Kyle has orientation for student teaching on the 16th and then starts student teaching on the 20th. So I decided the best plan is for Kyler to come on the 17th (the day before Kyle's birthday) so that I can come home on the 19th and Kyle can start student teaching on the 20th without worrying about me going into labor. Sounds like the perfect plan to me! So since I've already mentally changed my due date to the 17th, I will probably be super bummed when I see that day come and go with not baby debut. But I have high hopes and I would really appreciate it if everyone sent good baby vibes for the 17th! So here's hoping for an early arrival of our little dude and no more swelling for my poor feet!

Hello 30's

30 weeks!

I can't believe we have made it to the 30's already! I know I've said this a million times already, but holy cow, time is going by SO fast. August still feels forever far away but so stinkin' close at the same time. 10 weeks. That's all we have left. We can count the weeks on our fingers. We couldn't be more excited (and nervous) for the new change our lives are going to have in just 10 short weeks. 

Up until this point I would hardly remember I had a big belly when I was doing things. I wouldn't even think twice about it when getting up off the couch, putting on my socks, or moving over the laundry. But this last week I've really become aware of its presence! I think the baby ate my abs, because getting up off the couch requires some premeditated thought now. I kind of have to contort my leg funky in order to get my socks on, and bending over to do things like unload the bottom rack of the dish washer or move the laundry from the washer up to the dryer is a little more difficult now. 

I guess I'm still relatively tiny for how far I am though because every time someone asks how far I am and I tell them, they ALWAYS say "Wow! You're still so tiny!" EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. I'm measuring right on track at the doctors office, but I guess my long torso helps give baby (and my organs) a little extra room than most girls. 

Other than getting bigger and less nimble, everything is still going great! 

A couple weeks ago Kyle's brother and sister-in-law, Josh and Kate, came to visit us for the weekend. We had so much fun with them. 

We went to Yellowstone on Saturday with them and Janae and Reggie.

Most exciting part of the day? Running in to this guy on the road! 

He was walking right down the middle of the road. It was like he was trained to follow the yellow line. He would meander back and forth between both sides of the road so I wasn't sure which side to pass him on. Finally it looked like we had a chance to pass him on the right, but every time we started to pass him, he would swing his head over to the right and start walking that way. It was pretty intense passing him, I thought for sure he was going to smash his GINORMOUS head into the car. Finally we passed him and just to give you a better idea of how close we were to him, check out the picture Kyle got as we passed.

We pulled into the Old Faithful parking lot just after it went off, so we had an hour and a half to kill before it's next predicted time to go off. There is a kids discovery room in the visitors center and they had this activity that you could do to become a "Junior Ranger". Well Kyle thought it would be fun to do, so he, Josh,  and Reggie spent the next 90 minutes rushing to complete the "workbook" to get their badges. It was hilarious how set they were on becoming "Junior Rangers".

They passed and are now official "junior rangers"!

And of course, the weekend wouldn't be complete without a trip to the sand dunes. We had so much fun with Josh and Kate even though it was a short trip. We love spending time with them, so hopefully next summer we will move to Colorado and we can see them more often. 

After Josh and Kate left, Kyle's mom and Jonah and Jessica came to visit for a few days while Jentry and Jannea were at EFY. We went to Bear World with them one day. Kyle has been begging me to go to Bear World with him, so he was just as excited as Jonah was to go.  

I fed a deer. Check that off the bucket list. And then we got to go up in this big truck and throw food down to the bears. It was really fun to see all the bears come up to the truck looking for the food they knew we had. 

We had lots of fun with all of Kyle's family while they were here. We cant wait until Thanksgiving when we can spend a little more time than just a few days with everyone. 

Other than all that exciting stuff, we are just chugging along through school. We only have five more weeks of school and then Kyle graduates!!!! WOOO WOOO!! 

Time is flying by

 

(These pictures are always so awkward to take!)

27 weeks!

We are in our last week of the second trimester!! Next week will be on the home stretch! I always thought 9 months was a looong time to be pregnant, but it has seriously flown by. We only have three more months until the little man makes his grand debut. Everyone tells me I look so tiny when they find out how far along I am, but I definitely don't feel tiny any more. I finally gave in and bought some maternity jeans and I can't believe I waited so long to get some! They are SO stinkin' comfy.

I really have enjoyed being pregnant. The first 12 weeks were pretty miserable feeling sick all day long and I sure missed enjoying food, but since then it's been smooth sailing for us. Kyler is starting to kick a lot more and I love it. I love knowing that he is ok and still alive in there. 

Although I've had it pretty easy being pregnant there are definitely some things I miss, like being able to sleep through the night without having to get up to go to the bathroom or being able to sleep without my hips hurting or being able to wear my wedding ring without it give me a rash.

I have to take my gestational diabetes test next week and I'm praying I pass. I also have to get the dreaded RhoGAM shot and I get sick to my stomach every time I start thinking about it. I just keep telling myself to suck it up because it's nothing compared to whats coming in three months! I'm going to try my best to be a tough girl, but don't judge me if I shed a tear or two when I get it.

We are so excited for this sweet baby to join our family soon. We feel so blessed that Heavenly Father has trusted us with one of his precious children and hope that we can be the best parents possible to him.

It's a busy life!

Well, hello again! Have we been up to a lot or what! We have had some pretty busy four weeks. Here is an update on our busy lives. (Warning: This may be a long post, so you may want to abort now or get comfy.)

First, Janae and Reggie finally got hitched!! They got married on April 6th in the Manti, Utah temple. It was a great ceremony and the bride looked absolutely stunning (as expected). It was so stinking cold though. It had just stopped snowing when they walked out of the temple. We were all so cold so after the few family pictures we needed to be in we took off to Ephraim to warm up in McDonalds! Maybe this is a fact that was obvious to everyone else but me, but Manti is a TINY town! There is not much there except for the temple, two inns, and some random diners. So we had to drive 10 minutes to the next tiny town to get to McDonalds. After Janae and Reggie were done taking pictures we had a luncheon and then said goodbye to the newly weds. They both are so happy to be married!

Since Kyle and I's two year anniversary was on April 9th, we decided to make the trip our anniversary trip. We stayed the night in Manti at a little bed and breakfast inn called the Yardley Inn and Spa. We were up at 4:30 that morning to drive from Clearfield to Manti so we were pretty exhausted by the end of the luncheon, so we spent our afternoon in Manti taking a much needed nap! Afterwards we took a carriage ride around Manti. It was fun to see the quaint little town. The driver of the carriage was a sweet little old lady who knew every fact and almost every person in the town of Manti! She gave us all the history on the old buildings and who used to live where.

After our carriage ride we were hungry for some dinner and since Manti is only three blocks long, we went back to Ephraim for subway and a typical date activity - walking around walmart! (Luckily we live in Rexburg and have learned the value of touring Walmart as a date idea!)

The next day we met up with Kyle's family in Provo for lunch and the BYU rugby game. Then we headed back up to Clearfield where I had a baby shower with my family in Utah. We got so many cute things for baby Kyler!

We also spent Easter Sunday with my family and planned on leaving Monday morning for Rexburg. Unfortunately, we ran into some car problems. :( Our poor little Audi hadn't been functioning all that well. It would always jerk as if it couldnt switch in or out of first gear. I have a cousin who owns a mechanic shop in Kaysville so we figured we would just have him check out the car, hoping maybe it just needed transmission fluid or something simple like that. How sorely mistaken we were! He said he couldn't even find the exact problem and sent us over to the Audi dealership where they said they didn't think it was smart to drive the car back to Idaho because it probably wouldn't make it. They said the car was in "limp mode" and there was a leak in the vaccuum system - I don't know what that means, but apparently it wasn't good. So instead of heading back to Rexburg we spent another day in Utah while they fixed the car. We were worried about how much our car would cost to fix and our friend Scotty (who was driving back with us) missed work because of it, but overall the problem was "relatively" inexpensive to repair and we got to spend more time with my parents which was fun.  

Since we've been back we've jumped right into the hectic chaos of school. Kyle is doing his senior practicum this semester which means he goes to an elementary school in Idaho Falls every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. He is gone from 7:20 to 4:00 and on Wednesdays he has a two hour class after he is done at the elementary school. Having three days of his week full and working part time, he has stayed SO busy. He is either at the school, doing homework, preparing a lesson, working or occassionally he gets a little sleep in. It is definitely going to be a challenging semester for him, but he is such a hard worker that I know he'll get through his LAST semester of college! I am so grateful for all that he does for our little family.

I'm doing my fourth full semester in row and just so you know, that many semesters in a row is not much fun! That week long break between last semester and this one was simply WAY to short for me to be excited for school again. I am already looking forward to this time next year when both Kyle and I will have a bachelors degree!! We can see the light at the end of the tunnel finally, but it is still a verrrryyy small light.

And the last exciting events on our list was a quick trip to Colorado this last weekend. Kyle's little brother turned 8 and got baptized this last week! Reggie, Janae and I picked up Kyle a little early from the elementary school on Friday and drove down to Salt Lake to catch a late flight out. Saturday morning was Jonah's baptism and then we had a little family lunch. It was fun to spend time with Kyle's family. That night I had another baby shower for baby Kyler. Again we got the cutest things for him! So many cute cute outfits that I cannot wait to put Kyler in!! We are so grateful to everyone who has supported us during this exciting time in our lives.

We left early the next morning to fly back to Rexburg, so we were only in Colorado for 30ish hours which was a HUGE bummer. Kyle and I love that place so much and everytime we go back there we talk about how much it feels like home and we just want to move there now! We always have a hard time leaving there, but after only one day it was even harder to leave. As short as our trip was though, you better believe we made some time to celebrate Cinco de Mayo in the best way possible...QDOBA!!!!! Qdoba has been my absolute biggest cravings since I was first pregnant and there isn't one within at least a 6 hour drive from Rexburg. I seriously cried over it one night I had to have it so bad. I have been looking forward to this trip for SO long because I couldn't wait to get my hands on some of that heavenly deliciousness. And let me tell you, it was the best party my taste buds have ever had. It was so good that I better stop writing about it now or I might start crying over wanting it again! Seriously though, we BETTER live closer to a Qdoba during my next pregnancy.

And speaking of pregnancy, we are moving along just fine! I will be 25 weeks in just a few days. My belly is finally starting to get big and I'm down to only 1 pair of pants that still button. (I know, I know. I absolutely cannot complain that I am 25 weeks and my pants are just barely starting to not fit.)

(This picture was taken at 22 weeks, almost 3 weeks ago, so my belly is a little bit bigger now.)

I can't believe how fast the weeks are flying by! We are down to only 15 weeks and I know they are going to fly by. He is starting kick much harder lately and Kyle finally felt him kick last week! It was really exciting. I love feeling him kick. I know almost every experienced pregnant lady would be quick to tell me "Just you wait, soon he'll start kicking so hard it will hurt and be annoying". Yes, I am sure that day will come when his kicks hurt and keep me up all night, but right now I love feeling him kick and squirm. I love seeing my belly bounce up and down. I love that Kyle can finally feel him moving around too. Kyle and I both go through phases of being really excited for him to come and being really nervous for him to come. After getting all of the cute new things for him, I'm currently in the so excited phase. I just can't wait to see what he looks like and what his little personality will be like. I can't wait to hold him in my arms and kiss his little head.

Phew, that was a long blog post! If you read it all, you are a trooper! I didn't realize I had so much to catch up on. I think the next few weeks will be rather uneventful so it may be a while before you hear from me again. What can I say, it's a busy life!

Our little man

Thats right folks. Our little babe on board is allll boy! We had our second ultrasound today and it was SO fun to get to see our little baby again! At the first ultrasound, he looked like a shrimp, really. No human related qualities at all except for the black speck (his heart) that swished. But this time it (and by it I mean HE) looks like a BABY! Check out how handsome this dude is!


Handsome fella, huh?
I love his little hand up by his face. And his little nose! It was so neat to see him moving. He's a stubborn little boy though (he gets it from his mamma). When the ultrasound tech was trying to get measurements he would not hold still. He kept wiggling his little arms and legs back and forth. And then when she wanted him to move so she could get a profile shot, he wouldn't turn one bit so she could get a good angle. I tried laying on my side, pushing on my stomach, nothing. I'm telling ya, stubborn!

It was almost surreal to see him moving around since I haven't felt him move yet. It was crazy to see this tiny human just kicking his legs back and forth. We loved seeing our little boy! It was such a fun experience for the both of us.

Kyle is so excited its a boy! He says he can't wait until he can take him to the park and teach him how to throw a frisbee. I've pictured it being a girl for a couple weeks now so I was really surprised. But I am so excited to be having a boy. I am a little bummed I can't make lots of cute hairbows and dilapidated pinterest summer dresses out of pillow cases and other other cute girly things! But I guess things will be much simpler without the extra frilly fluff that comes with those adorable girls.

I always said it would be fun to raise a bunch of boys and it looks like we have our first boy on the way. And as Brielle always puts it, I'll still be the prettiest one in the family!

We really are so excited for this new adventure. I'm excited to see what he looks like, what his personality will be like and what kind of young man he becomes someday.



As you can see my belly is slowly starting to grow. Today I am 19 weeks and 3 days. Only in the last week or so have I started to move out of the fat looking stage and into the pregnant looking stage (although I think this picture makes it look like I'm still in that fat looking stage, it doesn't do my little belly justice really). My pants are just barely starting to feel tight when I button them, which I am thankful I've made it so far before they start to feel tight.
I have been feeling great! I'm exhausted by 8 or 9 at night, but I can't complain about too many annoying pregnancy symptoms. I still can't wait until I can get my hands on some delish Qdoba, but no other crazy cravings.

The semester ends this week and I am SO looking forward to the week off! I have a feeling it is going to be far to short of a break before the next semester starts again, but I will welcome this short break gladly.

coming soon...ish

Want to know something exciting?

This little peanut is going to be joining our family August 25th (tentatively)!!

We are so excited! A little nervous, this is a human being we're talking about here, but mostly excited!

How far along: 11 weeks

Maternity Clothes: not yet

Stretch marks: not for a while, hopefully

Sleep: still sleeping easy. I used to be tired ALL the time, but not so much lately.

Best moment this week: getting a class canceled! Right now there's not much exciting baby news since being pregnant just feels like being sick all the time right now.

Miss anything: finding food appetizing

Food cravings: Qdoba - why must it be so far away :(

Anything making you queasy or sick: not eating and ice cream

Have you started to show yet: nope

Gender: my sisters are guessing a girl but I have no guess or "intuition"

Labor signs: negatron

Belly Button in or out: in

Wedding rings on or off: on

Happy or moody most of the time: happy! but occasional random mood swings which I've never done before

Looking forward to: our appointment on Tuesday - hopefully we'll hear the heart beat!