Is This Real Life?

We set up the baby's nursery a couple days ago. That's when it really hit that we're going to be parents. I kind of had a little miniature anxiety attack. I sat on the floor, holding a diaper, wondering how the heck I was supposed to be a mother. A MOTHER. That's a big deal. I'm crazy excited to meet this cute little munchkin though. Travis put the crib together (with very little grumbling or complaining). It was very impressive. We got the mattress (thanks mom) and set it up with the crib bedding. Ummm.... cute!! I'm in love with it. We found the bedding from someone in Rexburg that only used it for a month. It's in great condition, and it's a 6 piece set. It was a great deal. And I love it more than any other set I found online. So happy mommy-to-be here. 

We had our first baby appointment with our Kansas doctor a few days ago. The doctor is GREAT and the office staff is wonderful. I'm way more happy with these folks than I was in Rexburg. We got pretty lucky. ANNNNND, we got another ultrasound! We weren't expecting it since most don't get another ultrasound after 20 weeks. But this office likes to do ultrasounds with their new patients. So we saw our little girl, and WOW, she's grown. Here's a few pictures. Enjoy!

Look at those chubby cheeks! I just wanna kiss 'em!

I love her little foot.

Not the best profile, her arm is laying along side her face. But still cute. ;)

We're going to be parents! Soon it will be the year that our baby girl is born. That's what I'm most looking forward to in 2013. Travis and I are crazy excited and can't wait to meet her. Only 2 and a half months left!

"You're Not in Kansas Anymore"... Oh Wait!

Yep. We are in Kansas. Travis starts chiropractic school at Cleveland Chiropractic College on January 7th (a week from today). He's super excited and I am very excited for him. He has a deep passion for the human body, how it works, and how to make it function to the best of its ability. He's eager to jump in and learn. And I have to admit, I'm anxious to take advantage of the free chiropractic care we get while he's in  school. hehe.

Can you see the excitement in his face?

We're living right outside Kansas City, KS. We're in a suburb called Overland Park. I can't imagine what it's like to actually live in Kansas City because Overland Park already seems like "big city living" to me. Seriously people, there are three Targets here. YEAH... THREE! And there's a HUGE mall that has over 200 stores. And there are like two or three outlet malls, along with another couple smaller malls. There's a Costco (Woohoooo!), Super Walmart, Super Target, Hobby Lobby, Buy Buy Baby, multiple Panda Expresses, and anything else your mind can come up with. The roads are all 6 lanes and 45 mph. Rexburg's speed limit was 25 or 35mph around town. It feels like we're always speeding. So pretty much this place is huge... and I'm excited to shop! I'm glad Travis dragged me to this place to spend four years while he's in school. There is so much going on. And it meets my criteria for a place to make me happy. It has a Walmart, Target, mall, and Red Robin. We're good.

We're living in a cute little two bedroom townhouse apartment. It's actually not very little. It's by far the biggest place we've called our own at 1,232 square feet. We just came from 800 square feet, so we're living the dream. Travis' parents and brother were here with us when we moved. They helped us settle in and make this place our home. We painted the family room, picked out some new furniture, and put pictures up. We're grateful for their helpfulness and love that they shared with us. We couldn't have made this transition without them.

Here's our "BEFORE" picture. Boring! (And nasty furniture!)

Travis painting. He worked so hard and fast.

We chose the blue because it matches our furniture.

Travis' dad did the edges and Travis did the rest of it. What a team!

He approves of the chair. :)

And here's the couch. The pillows match the chair.

Here's the "AFTER" picture. We're not done decorating the walls. But it's a start.

The kitchen is small, but works fine.

We found this bird picture at Hobby Lobby. It pulls in the blue from the other room. Random and fun!

And here's the outside. Cute place, huh? We're the end unit, so that's pretty lucky.

We love it here so far. We're excited to kind of be in our own place. Family isn't close, so we have to rely a lot more on each other. We're excited to get to know the people in our ward and make this our home for the next four years.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas was a great success. Travis' parents and brother were with us for Christmas. We just moved to Kansas and are having a blast. I'll post later about Kansas and how awesome it is. Last night we had a family night and read Christ's birth story in Luke. We talked about the true reason of the season and sang TONS of carols. Twas wonderful.

This morning, we got up and opened presents around 7:30. Even Lyla got a couple things. And the baby got some things too! It's crazy how grandmas can spoil a baby before it's even born. Haha. But I'm grateful for their love. Here's some fun pictures from Christmas. Enjoy! I hope you all have had and continue to have a Merry Christmas!

Pregnancy Thoughts

So I'm 24 weeks along today. Crazy shenanigans. Everybody's pregnancy is different, so it has been fun seeing how pregnancy works for me. It turns out it takes me a million years to get a decent-sized belly. It's definitely bigger than it used to be, but it's not huge yet. I'm just playing the waiting game. I'm at that stage where people think I've just eaten too much. I can't wait until people look at me and have no doubt in their mind that I'm pregnant. I know it's weird. Most people would embrace this time when their stomach is not that big, but I say, "Bring on the big belly!". Next week I'll only have 15 weeks left until d-day. That's only 3 and a half months!

I am loving maternity pants. I think I'll wear them for the rest of my life. They're so stinkin comfortable! Holy moly. Where have they been all my life? You can sit down to a great meal, eat way too much, and not have to unbutton your pants to release the pressure. So because you skip that step after overeating, it is a confidence booster. You don't have to be disappointed in yourself when your pants are too tight. I suggest everyone go out and buy some maternity pants. Like, for reals! Pregnancy has also made me really mean. Okay, I was really mean before, but I was pretty good at keeping it inside. Now I just explode with meanness. Mostly directed at Travis. It's sad, but true. I am aware of it and trying to control it. My hormones are just a mess. Which leads me to the point that I cry- all the time. Mostly at night. When it gets to be about 8:15ish, a beep goes off on my hormone radar and my hormones spike. Sometimes I find myself crying about crying. I cry because I hate that I cry. Haha. Crazy stuff. Poor Travis. I was crazy before I got pregnant, but we're at a whole new level of crazy now.

But even with all the craziness, pregnancy is so stinkin exciting. It's amazing that I have a tiny human growing inside of me. She's supposedly a pound and a half now and about 8.5 inches long. And I'd like to add that I just know she's darn cute too! You can say I have mother's intuition. Haha. And she's been kicking a lot lately. Can I just say that it's a super amazing feeling! Sometimes I feel like she's playing with me. Travis has felt a few kicks, but most of them aren't quite hard enough to feel. I know in a couple weeks we'll have a different story to tell. I hear kicks get pretty crazy and hard. So life is wonderful. Travis and I are in awe at how blessed we are. We're excited to be parents, and Lyla is excited to be a "big sister". Love you all!

Thankfulness

Happy Thanksgiving! Our first Thanksgiving was a success! Which is a surprise to the both of us. The meal was excellent, we're very stuffed, and waiting for the dinner to settle so we can start on the pie! Even Lyla enjoyed some turkey for dinner! Travis and I have so many things to be thankful for. First off, is each other. I love my husband and I'm so glad to know, without a doubt, that he loves me too. We're grateful for the upcoming opportunity that we get to be parents. We're grateful that Travis got accepted to a graduate school and our future is bright. God is so good to us! We love life and are excited for all the adventures that await. :)

Story Time

Okay. Have a seat. I'm going to tell a story. I'm going to try and not use the words "idiot", "maniac", and/or "crazy hooligan". But I can't make any promises. Haha.

So I was driving home from work today, listenin to some music. Probably something country or maybe it was classic rock. Anyways, I notice the light in front of me turns yellow. The car in front of me didn't slow down, so I slowed to stop at the red light. The car in front of me then stopped in the middle of the intersection. Yeah, for reals. It's almost like I could see how she was thinking because of the way she was driving. She stopped (like completely stopped) in the middle of the intersection because she realized she ran a red light. I was in the front of the line behind her. And you won't believe what she did next! Her reverse lights came on. She was going to try to reverse! That's when I spoke out loud to her, saying something like, "Yo dawg, you can't backup. I'm right here." She must have heard me because she started going forward again and fully committed through the red light. I was so embarrassed for her. The people that had a green light couldn't even go cause she was just sitting there having a moral dilemma. Haha. I just had to share the story because I was amazed. And if you were the girl driving in front of me today, congrats! You became a story on my blog.

Thank You Anonomous

Today was one of those days. I wasn't in that great of a mood to start off my day. Every morning I have to peel myself out of my bed. But for some reason this morning was harder than normal. Work was blah and then I went home. After work Travis and I were discussing how we can't find our iron. Travis has been wanting to wear his long sleeve button up shirts, but they need to be ironed. We lent (is that the right word?) our iron to someone at the beginning of the summer and can't remember who it was. So it's gone gone gone. I had this brilliant idea to get one from this online garage sale in Rexburg. I asked if anyone had an iron they'd be willing to part with, and someone did! They said they'd sell it to us for $10. We thought that was way better than buying one new. So we went to pick it up.

I knocked on the door and the guy cracked it open. It was immediately a strange situation. He was very rushed. I asked if I was in the right place, and he assured me that I was. He kept holding this small item out at me. I handed him the $10 and then he shoved the small item more towards me. I took it from him and he shut the door. This all happened within milliseconds people. I then realized that the small item was an iron. They gave us a travel-size fold up iron. What the heck? I thought an iron was one thing that was pretty standard. I didn't think there were any weird irons in the world. Dazed and confused I walked to the car where Travis was waiting. He was squinting his eyes trying to see what I had in my hand. By the time I got to the car, the situation was funny. I couldn't even talk. I just held the "iron" out to Travis so he could get a closer look. I was just laughing like a maniac, snorting and all. Travis didn't think it was as funny as me. Neither of us were brave enough to go back to their door and demand our money back, so we just left. I laughed all the way home. So that was situation number one.

THEN, we went to go grocery shopping before we had to get to a class tonight. We didn't have time make dinner so we just got something quick while we were out. Travis pulled into the parking lot of the grocery store for us to eat our quick meal. The sun was coming down so I pulled the visor down. Usually when I pull the visor down I have a 20% chance that it's actually going to block the sun. It really needs to be about 2 feet longer to be effective for me. So the sun was blaring in my eyes and Travis was just eating his dinner all cheery. So my raging hormones started raging even more. I angrily demanded Travis to find a parking spot facing the other direction so my eyes wouldn't be blinded. He finally gave in and relocated. When he pulled into the new spot and put the car in park, the sun was bouncing off his side mirror and blinding him. Hahaha. That's another instance where I lost control and laughed.

Both situations were situations where I laughed so I wouldn't cry or be upset. Travis was mostly upset. Haha. So here's the real kicker.

Situation number three. I lent my wedding dress to a photographer to use for a photo shoot. She offered to pay me, but I said no. I had a Good Samaritan attitude that day. So finally, after a month and a half, I get my dress back. I open it up and it's dusty and dirty. (They took pictures in a field.) I was pretty shocked that they would return my dress to me in that conditon. So I lost it. You know that moment where the dam you built up all day breaks, and the waters escape and flood everything? Yeah, that's what happened. I cried and cried for what felt like hours but was really only a few minutes. I was mumbling incoherent things and Travis was doing his best to soothe me. It probably would have been pretty funny to witness. Travis had to go to work (he works the night shift as custodian on campus). So he left and I tried to calm down.

So a little while later someone knocked on our door. I opened the door to find a plate of goodies. Cupcakes and candy. How did they know!? That is exactly what I needed. Suddenly my day turned great and I couldn't even remember why I was upset. (P.S. pregnancy is an emotional rollercoaster. I'm kinda crazy.) So I just wanted to thank the anonymous people that left us the treats. They were the best ending to a not-so-good day.

She's a She!

We were so happy to find out we're having a little princess. Okay... Truth is, I was disappointed for about a tenth of a second. We had everything planned if it was a boy. For a girl we were totally lost in the idea of a name, nursery theme, and clothing. BUT I've adjusted quickly and am eager and excited for this little girl! Travis has been super excited since we found out. He's going to be the best daddy. He leans down and talks to my belly all the time. Sometimes his face is so squished against my stomach he sounds like he's speaking whale. Haha. We have a few names we like, but it's so hard making the final decision. She's going to go by that name forever! In job interviews, on her wedding announcement, on her birthday cake... So much pressure! But it'll be fun when we finalize the decision and start calling her a name. Fun fun fun. Well here are the most recent pictures of our baby GIRL. I've highlighted some of the ultrasound pictures so you can tell what they are. I know sometimes they can be pretty hard to read. So because I am amazing and know exactly what's in the pictures, I will enlighten you. :) Enjoy!

She was curled up in a ball-  being all shy about it. Silly silly girl. Isn't she cute though?

Here's the picture that determined everything. Don't tell her I posted this picture when she's a teenager. She would be so embarrassed. haha. I'll post the blank ultrasound picture and then the highlighted one.

See, those are her legs. She's pretty exposed here. haha. But I'm glad she cooperated.

Here's her feet! Aren't they cute? She's been kicking me these last couple days. Those feet and legs are already pretty strong!

I can't wait until Travis can feel the kicks. Life is so wonderful!


We already love our little girl. We've bought a few outfits already. I want to go out shopping every day. I can't wait until we meet her. I'm over 19 weeks along. Pretty much halfway. So crazy. :)