more traditions.

If you remember from here, I have a list of traditions I want to have in my own family.

I need to document some more. :)

St Pattys day.

Honestly I don't know why we celebrate this holiday in America, other then the overwhelming need America has for a good reason to get drunk.

But, none the less, I love a good chance to celebrate. :)

So in my house, with my kids, St Pattys day will be a holiday we use to celebrate different nationalities, of course mainly Irish.

I worked in a daycare in high school, and we did something there with the kids that I always wanted to do with my own kids because it was so dang cute and the kids absolutely loved it.

We took the kids outside to the park, and the teachers that stayed behind would create a leprechaun attack. How? simple, they just knocked over the chairs, threw papers everywhere, got the blankets all over the place etc. But then they painted little green leprechaun footprints everywhere, with washable paint obviously, on the tables, windows, fridge etc. and left little piles of chocolate gold coins everywhere for the kids. When the kids got back in and saw the chaos we gave them shocked faces and explained that leprechauns had come in while we were gone, and left gold coins everywhere on accident. They absolutely loved it. They were so excited for the whole day and couldn't wait to tell their parents. I plan on doing this every st pattys day with my kids.

Here are the footprints. :)

You make them with your hands, obviously.

(By the way, these foot/hand prints were totally made by me. in my kitchen. see thats my ugly blue counter tops.)

Green things. Obviously you have to wear green, but I think its fun to make green foods, and make the whole day green.

for dessert after dinner, making a cake with green frosting and then making a rainbow on it made with m&m's.

Easter!

Clearly, decorating eggs is a tradition that you are crazy if you don't do. Jason and I even did it this year.

See?

Of course they will be hidden somewhere in our house.

a new easter outfit will be needed for each kid obviously.

One thing my mom did that I thought was fun and I didn't realize she did this until I grew up, was we got gifts on easter, but they were almost always gifts that we had to use together. Like games or something that required us to play together and have fun. So it was nice, we didnt just get our gifts and run off to our rooms to play by ourselves, we played with each other for hours.

I am up for extra ideas and fun traditions so if you have any that you have enjoyed with your family, tell me about it!

(P.S. I wrote this post back in April, but apparently never posted it, I just came across it today so now it is posted. buwahahaha)

first days are always...fun.

So I thought I should update you on my current job situation.

I have said good-bye(hopefully forever) to the clerical/administrative job world, and said hello to the Personal Training world.

I no longer work for the State of Utah as a legal secretary, but instead I now work at 24 Hour Fitness as a Personal Trainer.

Polar opposites? I know. When I was in high school, til I was 21, I wanted to work in law, be a parallegal and spend my days at a desk with office inside jokes and dessert Friday's. It wasn't until I had what I wanted, that I realized that was not what I wanted at all. I now spend my time moving around, exercising, talking to people, helping people, motivating people, and doing what I truely love.

Fitness.

Today was techinically my first day, although I have been doing stuff with them and getting ready for a few weeks now.

It should be fun, and if nothing else, it will be excellent job experience in this field.

24 Hour Fitness is a sponsor of the Biggest Loser so I feel special about that for some reason lol.

So, wish me luck!

P.S. Can I just say how much I looove this cold weather. Yay for having all my windows open!

surprises

I have the best friends.

and I have no idea where they came from!!

lol. There are people from my high school, who in high school I had nothing to do with, or even didn't like, that are now awesome friends of mine and are really just the best.

I have a friend, that I worked with years ago, that was so different from me then, and still different from me now, but has become such a wonderful friend and role model.

I had a surreal realization last night.

This pregnancy, has been interesting, and at times tough. Its nothing I would trade for anything, but its also changes I have never experienced and am not used to.

I promised myself I wouldnt complain about anything, but I also need to talk to others who have gone through it, to help me understand it.

Yesterday I was talking with a friend of mine who I haven't spoken to in years really, and was explaining the hard things about being pregnant and she said the most chilling thing, that I didn't even realize the gravity of it until I was laying in bed last night.

She said,

"Everytime it gets rough, just remember you're assisting Heavenly Father in a miracle!"

At first I didn't really think anything of that comment, because I have noticed a lot of people of typical things they say to try and make others feel better. But this comment, hit me differently than others, and it felt real.

I have been trying to understand what is going on inside my body, what my little one is doing, reading and researching to know exactly why things are happening and how, when it dawned on me, what is going on inside me, is nothing less than a miracle, and its something I may never understand. I actually started crying last night (which is no recent surprise) when I put it into perspective, that I am assisting Heavenly Father in one of his many miracles. I am working closely with Heavenly Father to create and develop this precious child, to do many mighty things. When I have my symptoms and things from being pregnant, I know, that Heavenly Father is currently working a miracle inside me, and that, is so wonderful to be able to feel. I can FEEL his miracle!

It was after all just last night all this happened, but it immediately changed my outlook on what is going on. I no longer(at least as of today) think of this pregnancy as something that is happening to me, but something that is happening with me.

I was grateful to get pregnant. I am now so much more grateful and humbled to be able to carry such a precious tool to my Heavenly Father. I am humbled that he trusts me to do this.

I am so emotional lol, but am so happy this morning.

And thank you, to my special friends who help me with tender moments like this. :)

tired of it yet?

The pregnancy talk that is. If you are, just scroll half way down for the "normal" stuff.

I swear, I will try to find none-pregnancy things to talk about, soon.

But for now I need assurance.

assurance that a lot of women have nausiousness like this.

I am not complaining, because I love being pregnant, for what it means, I just don't understand it.

I don't really understand the changes my body is going through. So I don't know how to handle it. I am sure I have not been handling it the right way, but time will tell I guess.

Now, back to my question.

Well first let me explain how my nausiousness is.

its not in the morning.

its mid-eating to post-eating.

Its like, I can think of a meal, and how delicious that meal is, start eating it, and then half way through, each bite makes me more and more sick until I have to stop eating. Then for a couple days after, the thought of that meal brings on nausia.

Is that normal?

And if it is, any secrets to keeping it under control?

The weirdest thing so far, I can't feel the baby yet obviously, but I can totally feel my enlarged uterus! lol. If I push on my lower stomach its hard and like right up against my skin. Thats weird.

Non-pregnancy topics:

My kitties are lovely. They have adjusted nicely to each other, it only took about a month! They do have this weird fascination with bees, so everytime they get to go outside, they hunt bees. I quite like the set up we have with them. I always felt bad at the idea of having just indoor cats, like it was depriving them of fresh air, but I didnt want neighborhood wondering cats either. Our yard is completely fenced in, with vinyl, and we have a "dog door" which we now call the cat door. We open the cat door and let them out for a couple hours a day, and they just play in the backyard and have no interest so far in trying to escape. I think it works for everyone.

Our laptop died the other night. Its in the "Shop" being fixed, so until then I can't upload any pictures. We are borrowing one of my parents laptops so at least I can blog. :)

I am going to plan that dinner party! yay! Although I am not sure how to plan it, other than to prepare a meal lol. I can't decide if I want a theme dinner, or games or what. Whatever I decide, it will be fun because of the company that is coming. I just have to pick a date that works for everybody, because their attendance is key. :)

On a random side note, I am totally about to make chocolate cake for breakfast. :D

Week 7

Week 7, crossed off.

(on Thursday, I tend to do this post a day early, it all evens out.)

Lets see. Week 7 brought weird new symptoms. The first is burping. I burp like crazy, all the time, at least a couple times an hour. Its weird because there is no substance to it.

The cramps have gotten more frequent and worse. This morning at like 2 am, I woke up to intense cramps and had to get in the bath. the Dr said its perfectly normal as my uterus stretches and grows. He also said the uterus stretches and grows usually when the baby is awake because its already moving around, so I know that when I am cramping, my baby is awake. :) I wish she would sleep when I do though.

The nausea has set in, and its weird. I am not throwing up, but just the sight or smell of some foods send me over the edge and I need to lay down, and it varies from day to day which food it is.

Week 7 also brought another ultra sound!!! My Dr is super excited for me and wants to ease my mind about everything, so he lets me do ultra sounds a lot. :D can't complain.

So here is our little one! On the screen while it was moving, it totally looked like a gummy bear. We saw the heart beat, and I think it will be cool to hear it, but its emotional just to SEE the heart beating. It was a total surprise to see the baby. The radiologist told me we were just going to see two sacs, and a flicker of a heart beat. So when the baby popped up it was so cool! Like it came out to say hello. I will never get tired of ultra sounds, and I will take advantage of any chance I get to have one. It was so surreal to see the ultra sound today, to see the difference 1 1/2 weeks made, how much the baby has grown and developed.

I had my first "official" pregnancy appointment, where he told me all the dos and donts, and gave me a bag of goodies. I like my Dr, I don't love him, but so far I like him. I have an appointment in a week or two with a midwife also, because my insurance covers it so why not? The midwife helps you through labor and life, and not just the medical part of it like the Dr does. I think it will be nice.

I gained 2 lbs. Eeeks. I am not supposed to be gaining weight yet, so I am going to have to get it in gear. Don't worry, I am going to follow my heart rate restrictions the Dr gave me, but I shouldn't be gaining weight until like month 3-4 and I am about to finish month 2.

So far, I love being pregnant. Its not the most comfortable at times, and sometimes its down right painful, but when you think about what is going on inside your body, its amazing, and all worth it.

The more the weeks tend to be the same, I will probably stop doing a weekly post, unless there is something different to post about.

Week 6

Week 6 came and went!

It went by so fast, because we spent the whole week camping.

Week 6 brought with it, 6 pregnancy tests. lol. I really for some reason just couldn't help myself. I had a ton of the dollar store pregnancy tests, which by the way work fabulously, and so I just keep taking them because its so fun to see a positive test. You go months and months reading negative test after negative test, it is just nice and fun to see a bunch of positive ones. Haven't had one false negative with them so, so far they are 100% accurate! lol. Its a fairly inexpensive guilty pleasure. :)

Week 6 also included our first ultra sound! The Dr wanted to do an ultra sound so early to make sure the embryo implanted in the uterus probably, and it is! It is the dark circle right in the middle of the picture. Couldn't hear the heart beat, but man it was just cool to see it.

The black circle is just the sac, you can't see the baby yet, but it looks a little like this...

Since we were camping for all of Week 6 there wasn't any shopping done, or anything normal. There was a lot of reading, reflecting, name choosing, planning etc. All the things you can only do, with nothing lol.

Symptoms of week 6 are pretty much the same as the symptoms of week 5. Shocking, I know.The lovely ladies keep getting bigger, if you know what I mean. ;) Thats not all that fun, its impossible to find a comfortable position on my stomach, so I am learning to like sleeping on my side. :D The amount of peeing is insane!!! I mean, I used to use the bathroom like 3 times a day. Now, its like every hour I have to pee.

Pregnancy talk- This may be just for those of your who are or have been pregnant, cause I didn't understand til they explained it to me. My HCG levels have doubled consistently, and as of my last check up were 2240. My Progesterone levels however, were low. So the Dr is starting me on progesterone shots, I have to get one a week until 10 weeks, or until my levels stay high on their own.

New tradition? I think sooooo

so I in my 6th week of pregnancy, and I think I have unearthed a new tradition in our family.

If you scroll to the very bottom of my blog, you will see a pregnancy ticker that compares the fetus to fruit, in size.

Well, Jason and I are going to celebrate each week with each fruit!!

So this week our baby is the size of an apple seed, so we will be enjoying delicious red apples this week.

(because I hate green apples)

Don't leave me.

So I have this idea of how friendships are, how they evolve and even how they dissipate.

but lately some friendships aren't happening the way I want, and I am gonna tell you all about it. :) Tell me if my views on friendship are warped.

So I have this friend, who I have known for a couple years. She and I were in a close group of friends in the ward. We all used to hang out like every weekend. Inside jokes, laugh, pick up guys, cry together, take a million pictures together etc.

Then most of us got married.

I understand that marriage changes friendships, and for the most part we all adapted. Except this one friend just like fell off the face of the earth. She is one of those people where you have to make the attempt to be her friend, and even then its a 70% chance she won't reciprocate for whatever reason. We have all learned this, and most of us have moved on from it. Except for me. I feel like its just not ok how things have unfolded with her, and I want it to be different. I don't know how to make it different. The thing about her, is that all she has wanted in life is a husband and a baby, to validate her existence. I am sad, and scared for her that once her baby comes(She is due in sept) she will realize that she needs friends and will feel very alone. So, I want to keep the lines of communication between her and I open, but I am 89% sure it won't matter.

Now, the rest of my friends. :) Whom I love dearly. Rock. When you are single, your friends are your life and omg what would you do without them right? Well I have learned that once you get married, your husband is your life, and your friends are important. It is fun to talk to each other about our similar experiences and frustrations, and to see that you are not alone. I worry though, that we are not close enough. I mean really, when you are single you talk to your friends ALL the time about everything. and when you get married obviously things change and all you have time for is a once a month dinner, maybe. I get that, but I still want to be close friends that we can tell anything to. I don't want it to be like the movie Now and Then where we meet up 10 years later and update each other on our lives.

The other type of friends I now have and adore are the ones I inherited through marriage. Jason is a shy person, and as such doesn't have a million bajillions friends I have to try and remember their names, he has a few good friends that have incredibly awesome wives. Jason laughs because I talk to their wives more than he talks to his friend. And when we get together, its always the wives that plan it. :) I really adore these friends, and consider them friends, not just my husbands friends wives.

One day I would like to have a dinner party, and invite 6 of our "couple" friends to meet each other, because really I think they would all hit it off. But really, my biggest fear is probably planning something like that, putting time, effort and heart into, and then no one showing up. :( So it might just stay an idea. :(

So friends, I just have one thing to say to you.

Don't leave me. :)

Week 5

End of Week 5. (in 1 day anyway)

(yes I will be documenting each week, deal. )

Week 5 brought tender breasts, water retaining, lots of peeing, funky "cravings", total exhaustion, and lots of happiness.

Its weird to me to think that I have 2 hearts beating inside me.

a body within a body.

and I love it.

I love that I carry around this little fetus with me everywhere I go. I pathetically have started touching my stomach when thinking about the baby. Jason does, too. :)

Really the biggest different or symptom has been the exhaustion. the Dr. says I will be really tired the first little while as my metabolism adjusts to the changes, but man alive I am tired!! I came home the other day, laid on the couch and said to myself," don't fall asleep because you have to fix dinner before Jason gets home from work." The very next thing I know Jason is sitting next to me on the couch changing the channel. I had no recollection of falling asleep, or dreaming.

On the flip side, the other big symptom has been NOT being able to fall asleep. ?. I know. I am tired all day, which I love being tired because I love getting the sleep that comes with it, but at 10 pm when its time for bed, I can not fall asleep. lol I sit there and just laugh at how tired I am, but when my head hits the pillow, nothing. My Dr told me I could take Tylenol PM for that, which has been my miracle drug.

The cravings are funny. I am not convinced yet, that pregnant women CRAVE things. I think pregnant women are naturally hungry, but start thinking of weird things to eat, and then just get it stuck in their head. This week I wanted Fried Bananas. Just once, and once I had them, I was good. But boy did my mouth water until I got them. Another favorite was Hamburger

helper. :D

Another thing week 5 brought was reading! I have been reading this book, by suggestion and love it. I can't put into words while doing it justice what this book is about but I shall try. Its about learning to go through pregnancy naturally, how to be IN your pregnancy and not a victim of it, how to be in tune with your baby and body, and how to enjoy and control labor. I will admit, its a little extreme on the hippy al naturale side, but I love it none the less. It has your express your feelings through art, however terrible your art skills are. I was surprised when I did my first drawing, what I was feeling and what I drew that I was worried about.

Week 5 also included getting our car seat and stroller set! Obviously not knowing what the gender will be, we got a unisex set, but I wanted it to still be super cute. My hubby spotted this one on a SWEEEEEET deal, so we snatched it. I think its pretty unisex, its got red dots, pink dots, green dots blue dots and yellow dots. We wanted unisex anyway so that we can use it with the next baby.

It is still sooo weird to me that I am pregnant. I keep waiting for my period to come, and it never does. That is one thing I am sure I will not miss. :)

Yes, Week 5 has brought a lot, but most of all the end of Week 5, has brought Week 6. :)

This weekend was busy!

I really feel like I didn't get any rest, at all.

Friday Jason and I went to Babies'R'Us, for fun.

Saturday, my little sister Hollie went through the temple for the first time. So early Saturday I went to my parents house to pack her bag, and get everything ready for here. Then we went to the Hitlon Garden Inn in Sandy to check in(more on why in a minute), met up with our family for dinner around 5. Then rushed to the Timpanogis Temple to get there by 730 for the 8 session. Then back to the hotel.

We stayed at a hotel out there because at 9 am the next morning we had to be in West Jordan because my dad is now the Commander of his unit in the Army, so we went to the change of command ceremony. Then we came home, Jason and I, and took a long Sunday nap, then back to my family's house for dinner.

sigh. Busy.

It was a really neat experience though for my little sister to go through. I was excited because when I got into the endowment room, no one had sat by her on the front row yet, so I got to sit by her for the session.

And of course, I love going to the temple cause I get to take my wee one with me. It was fun to sit next to my husband in the celestial room, and know that our wee one was there, literally, with us. Nothing is cooler than that, yet. ;)