Looking Back at 2016

It's my favorite post of the year - the review post. Here's how our 2016 went:

January

January went better than I expected. We finally got to go see the Midway Ice Castles and we went to our first ball (a Harry Potter themed one at that!). I didn't expect to have as much fun as a did right off the bat for the year, but those were GREAT ways to start this year. I made a resolution to stay busy to make memories this year and while I feel we didn't get out as much as I would have liked I can say I didn't hate the way the year went :)

February 

February brought our first big new home item: The Design Center! We got to pick EVERYTHING for our house out in one night. It was crazy hectic with how many options there were, but in the end I was happy with all our choices (although now the only thing I'd change is our exterior colors...maybe that shouldn't have been the last thing we picked haha)

We also spent a very fun Valentine's/President's Day Weekend making our first cheesecake and watching a scary movie haha. It was so much fun baking together and I'm glad we found a way to celebrate that was perfect for us

March

March had us going to our first play of the year. One of my favorite memories of the year, especially when it was completely random (I didn't realize that play would be coming, I just stumbled upon the ad for it). We also got to put our down payment on the house and take a little walk to our lot one night. We wanted to make it a weekly walk, but we didn't end up doing that. It was still fun.

I also got introduced to the bald eagles at D.C. Which I watched until the very end of the streaming and can't wait to see them again in 2017!

April

I started April off by dragging family and friends around to different places while I let Larry be the home body he is haha. This even included going to the gardens with family from afar. And also a road trip to visit other family (and a baby!).

As for house stuff, we finally had our foundation laid!! It was an exciting month for us (much more than previous years where almost nothing happens in April haha)

May

One of the most exciting things to happen in May was Larry's graduation! I don't know that I've eve been more proud of him up to this point! He did such an amazing job with schooling and all the trips I wanted to take. He's so brilliant and I'm still so happy for him!

We did another birthday celebration with Andy, one that was pretty successful as far as happy days and showing off the house. It was a great one!

Memorial Weekend was spent visiting family, riding roller coasters, and seeing an old friend and her new baby. It was probably one of my favorite 3 day weekends this year (or the funnest I've spent Memorial Day Weekend in...ever!)

 

June

In June we took our first weekend trip down to St. George. This was a first for us and it did not disappoint. It was probably one of my favorite trips we did this year (all were road trips). The weather was warm, the water felt nice, and we got to see our second play of the year (Tarzan). It was a GREAT trip!

We did our first (and probably last) Parade of Homes this year, followed by a fun group on our first (and definitely not last) Ghost Tour. The Parade of Homes was so cool to see, but I didn't get out of it what I was expecting so it didn't seem worth the ticket price. The Ghost Tour wasn't what I was expecting either, but we had such a fun group that we knew we'd be going again!

We were introduced to our neighborhood this month and had a great time at the pot luck they held for everyone! It was such a good way to get to know people we'd be living next to.

We also locked in our rate and got everything ready for our home. I also found my new love of the heat and finally bought some shorts after 15 years of never wearing them. It was a GREAT beginning of the summer.

Lastly, we went to the air show with Marie and Jim again. It was much better, for me, this time since it was very sunny and I finally had proper ear protection. I'm not sure when/if we'll go there again, but it was nice getting it in this year!

 

July

July had to be our most eventful month this year! Not because anything that happened this month was bigger than other months, but just SO much happened! For starters, we began this month with Larry's awesome birthday celebration! It was brilliant to think of us just choosing what we want to do for our birthdays and the other pays for it (with a spending limit in mind, of course!). It's so hard to think of gifts ALL the time so at least this way the birthday person gets to have what they want without feeling obligated to be oohing and aahing over things they don't care about.

We also had a very busy Fourth of July Weekend. Complete with Fireworks, baseball, a museum trip, showing off the house to more family members, a hike, and saying goodbye to a GREAT friend! Many laughs, tears, and smiles for this weekend!

We celebrated the almost closing and last walk-by of our house and picking our last vacation spot of the year (the weirdest part about this is is I wasn't pregnant when we picked the vacation spot, but I was pregnant when we went, I just didn't know it!)

We tried to distract ourselves from closing issues by going to my work party and winning a Crate & Barrel gift card. Looking back now I feel bad I let a silly issue bring our party attitude down, but what can you do now? We did make up for it that weekend by going appliance shopping and starting our packing! That was REALLY fun!

We finally did close on our house and got all moved in way ahead of schedule (like 3 hours earlier than I expected).

We celebrated an amazing first week in our new home. Sounds silly, but it was a REALLY good, productive week! We also spent two of those days getting the condo ready to sell...that was probably not as much fun though haha.

We ended the month with our first Slide the City event! I have to say I think I did really good with finding things to do to keep us busy and create memories this year :)

August

We got to visit the Tracy Aviary thanks to Larry's schooling hosting Alumni Nights. It was very interesting as we had never been there before and we weren't sure what to expect. For being a free event I really liked it.

We also got to see my favorite comedian ever in person! John Mulaney (and his opener) were HILARIOUS! I remember being in tears this night because the jokes were just THAT great! I am VERY happy I got to do this this year!

We spent another weekend in Park City AND doing Ghost Tour #2. (Side Note: Technically I was pregnant this weekend, I had no idea though. It's just funny to think what I did without realizing it). Even though it was a packed day, it was a lot of fun!

We had our first house guests (Ariel, Nathan, and Baby Rachel) and it was so much fun! I was nervous having guests over when the house was still new to us, but I really enjoyed having them over. I feel bad because I didn't realize till MUCH later that they are allergic to animals and we just let the kitties go all over around them. Ariel, if you're reading this, I promise we'll be better about that if you choose to stay with us again :)

Lastly, we celebrated our first month in the new house. Which seems silly, but it was a GREAT first month and we had a lot of fun getting lawn care stuff (among other things). We had a neighborhood party within that first month and got to put rooms together (a little bit). Such a great month for us!

September

We started September (literally) with our last vacation of the year in South Dakota. While the drive through Wyoming was AWFUL the rest of the trip was pretty awesome! It definitely didn't have a vacation feel (for me), but we got to try a lot of new things and Larry finally got to see Mount Rushmore

After our trip we got to finally float the Provo River with Marie and Jim. I've always wanted to do that and so I was glad when we got that invite. I hope it's a thing we can do another summer.

Shortly after all that we found out I was pregnant (again). This was so scary, but so exciting as it wasn't fully planned like last time. But it was the best surprise I could have gotten! The first few weeks I was very anxious, but seeing BB and hearing that heartbeat was the best sight and sound ever! Everything before this moment feels like nothing compared to this adventure. Unfortunately I ended up being SO sick the rest of this month that we didn't do much after that other than doctor visits and my weekly updates...whoops!

October

We celebrated 12 years together in October. I didn't do a post about this since I wasn't up for doing much that day. We basically got new phones, went out to eat, and then came back home so I could sleep haha. About mid month we did end up having our first live-in house guest: my brother. I was so happy to help him get out of the house he was living in and having an extra helper around has been great!

Because I was sick most of this month it wasn't spent doing a lot. We did go shopping for Halloween decorations, but other than pumpkins we didn't put any out or up. We made up costumes based on what we already had, but we did end up having a ton of Trick-or-Treaters so that made up for the rest of the month of laziness (but I can't be blamed, being on pelvic rest while being SUPER sick you really don't care to do anything else). The greatest part was finally hearing on Halloween that the hemorrhage was pretty much healed up and we just got to enjoy the pregnancy at that point!

November

November we celebrated with a visit from my mom and Will. I look forward to those visits each year and this year was more special with BB in the picture! I started to feel better this month so getting out with them was great! We got to spill the beans to family as well as social media this month, which was so crazy scary exciting!

We had a great Thanksgiving with lot of family (at least around the day) and ate lot of food, which was the greatest part to me haha.

December

This December has been such a great one! We bought our first fish tank and fish, we celebrated 20 weeks of being pregnant (a GREAT milestone), we had one of the best Christmas days ever (spent being indoors, opening gifts, playing games, and cooking a delicious turkey dinner). We also found out we'll be having a baby girl, a complete shock to me!

Now we get to celebrate the end of 2016 and the start of 2017. It's so awesome knowing we're going into the year our baby will be born. I know I've posted a TON about the whole baby thing, but I could literally not be more excited. I was so nervous seeing the positive on the test when I took it, but now that I'm at where I'm at things are just getting more exciting.

I hope everyone out there is having a great year and is looking forward to the next one we get! Happy New Year!!!

21 Weeks

How far along? 21 Weeks (Cantaloupe)

Maternity  Clothes? Still putting it off as long as possible!

Sleep? Like usual at this point, Christmas morning I was up at 5, which is sleeping in for me for Christmas, but still so so so early! One morning the butt cramps started at midnight instead of 3 AM so that was a LONG night :\

Best moment of the week: Finding out we're having a girl :) I still can't believe it, but I've definitely adjusted and it makes me feel more connected to her. But maybe that's just because I know. We also picked out a nursery theme since that was one of the first requests once we knew gender...that was a bit overwhelming for sure! Oh and Larry feeling movement finally (see the movement section for those details)

Miss Anything? I guess if I had to pick something it would be all the boogers I now have. I have to blow my nose all the time. I keep forgetting about that part.

Movement: Yeah, and Larry officially got to feel it! It was Monday night (the 26th) and we were watching Blended. I was leaning back on him and felt her wiggle and kick. I told him to put his hand on my belly to feel it, but not to push. At first he said it felt like a heart beat so I told him to keep his hand there and sure enough she wiggled and kicked him again. I could tell he was really excited to finally feel it. Every time I'd put my hand on my belly he'd ask if she was moving and would want to feel again. It's really the best feeling ever!

Cravings/Aversions: Nothing new.

Gender: We have a little lady swimming around :)

Labor Signs: Nope, feeling great!

Symptoms: As usual - peeing, hunger, back pains. That's about it.

Moods: I'm still a bit emotional. See my Baby Shopping post about how emotional I get just shopping for a girl.Trying to think of girl stuff all of a sudden was scary and new. But once I got used to it and we picked things we liked I started feeling much better and now I'm REALLY excited.

Looking forward to: Meeting our little lady. I also can't wait for the next ultrasound so we can actually watch them find gender and just see how she looks then...but we still have a few weeks.

Baby Girl Shopping

So today was supposed to be the day we spent doing my birthday activities and what I wanted to do was go shopping for BB (also now referred to as Little Lady since w already have a Baby Girl in the home). We started with some house stuff shopping, because that's one of my favorite parts of our days off now haha. We then went out to lunch at Leatherby's (a birthday tradition in our home) and then to Buy Buy Baby.

Wow! Let me say how I did not prepare myself for a girl at all! I mean I'm so very excited, but seeing the clothes I started freaking out about her growing up way too fast, becoming a teenager, and suddenly hating me haha. It's so silly, but I was really freaking out. I started crying because I'm such an emotional wreck lately and Larry comforted me letting me know I was being silly and we'd be okay. We then went to look at nursery bedding ideas because we needed to come up with a color scheme (so many people had kept asking for it so I knew it was a #1 priority for this stop), but I had such a hard time finding one I just absolutely loved and felt so overwhelmed I started crying again. Luckily Larry's been amazing about how emotional I've become so he just stood there with me waiting for me to compose myself.

I decided I liked the more yellow, green, and brown color scheme, but Larry found a bed set with animals on it. I knew I wanted to think of a color scheme and then just add animals to it (the biggest thing is we want our kid to love animals and traveling). I liked the idea of an animals bedding, but the one he picked seemed so busy. Then the next part just melted me:

Larry: but if we had this we could teach her about animals. When putting her to bed I could show her each one. "Do you like the giraffe?", "Do you like the elephant?", "Do you like the monkey?"

I mean picturing that in my head how could you NOT just fall in love with that idea? I immediately loved the idea of having an animal bedding, but I wanted one a bit more feminine so I found one that had a bit more pink to it (pink isn't my absolute favorite, but I had to have a little bit of pink or purple). We also found some transitional cribs we liked. We only left with a cute little love bug outfit and a blanket that went with the bedding just as a start.

After that we went to Barnes & Noble (I had a gift card to spend there) and found some books we wanted. We also looked at all the areas so of course kid stuff came up and we found some fun books, brain quizzes, and hobby kits we can't wait to try out with BB. Now that we've found things we like and I'm getting more ideas for the nursery I'm in Little Lady Baby heaven! Life could not be greater at this point. I'm so excited to meet this girl and kiss her all over!

Now to get ready for the New Years! I'm still in Christmas mode, but I can't wait for the fresh start and the beginning of award season :) It really is the most wonderful time of the year!

Christmas 2016

Let me start this out by saying I was really emotional this Christmas. After my awful Christmas last year I just wanted to get through it without any sadness or bad things happening. Luckily I got my wish this year (plus I remember last year saying I hoped I had a healthy baby by next year, so I got that wish too).

I may be biased, but this has to be the best Christmas there has ever been for the following reasons:

• I actually slept until 5:30! I am like a child on Christmas morning so I'm usually up around 4 AM waiting for Larry to get up so while 5:30 doesn't seem late, it's late for me AND it gave me time to take a shower before getting into things for the day. Larry was up at the same time so it was perfect! After my shower we went downstairs and opened our gives from each other. We got lots of games, house stuff, and some clothes. We kind of agreed we'd do a Christmas-After-Christmas with each other. Plus we still had to celebrate my birthday so figured Monday would be for that.
• Andy was actually up in time so we could open our gifts from/to him and from my mom to us. We got some fun baby stuff at that point and more games. It was great! I'm doing my best to get Andy's holiday spirit up again since he says he just doesn't care about them anymore.
• We got on a Skype call with Mom, Will, Don, Tracy, Grandma, and Cindy to open our baby gender gift. Here's the important part of that video:

• Even though I was so sure BB was a boy, I'm getting used to and excited about having a girl! It's overwhelming, but I'm just so happy BB is healthy and we know the gender at all. We watched the ultrasound DVD they recorded during our visit and it was so fun watching BB wiggle around again. Unfortunately it wasn't the whole ultrasound, but it gives us something to watch when we need to see her until we meet her in May. Here's our fun announcement:





Finding out we're having a baby girl!

• After we were done with all that we started our turkey and played all the games we had that we could. Andy decided to stay in with us so he played games with us. It made for such a fun day. Our Turkey was done pretty early so we had an early dinner, but it was so yummy! I don't think we could have made a better dinner. And playing the games we just got for the day made the fun of the holiday last longer than just the morning! We'll be doing the rest of our gifts later, but I don't care about that. As I've said before, I love giving gifts more than getting them so that part I'm looking forward to.

Here are pics from our Christmas:

Our tree Christmas Eve

The kitties Christmas present

How adorable, right?

Our tree when it was first decorated

Had to get one of others opening gifts :)

I hope everyone else had a great Christmas Day! I love having a 4 day weekend! I just hate when it's all over and people expect things to go back to normal...I'm going to be on a Christmas high for a long time! Haha

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

20 Weeks - We're Halfway There!

Picture was edited AFTER we knew gender...sorry for the spoiler

How far along? 20 Weeks - The halfway point I never thought we'd get to! Haha! (Also, the size of mango)

Maternity  Clothes? I was given a pair by a co-worker that might work. They are large so I'll probably fit in them. Also got some amazing sweats from my mom for my birthday that are just the absolute best! I wish I could wear them to work, it's making me think I might try leggings.

Sleep? I sleep so well when I do, but once 3 AM hits and I have to pee and switch sides all the time it's harder. Although now that I know BB isn't only on my left side it makes me feel better about sleeping on that side (I was worried about squishing him/her before)

Best moment of the week: The big ultrasound for sure. The lady beat the crap out of my stomach so that wasn't as much fun. But watching BB wiggle his/her butt and gulp some lovely amniotic fluid was amazing. Also seeing the legs and arms and feet and hands was awesome. BB has some large feet (in my opinion, so it looks like he/she got that from me), wiggly fingers, and the cutest toosh I ever saw (seriously, want to kiss it...is that weird? Haha) I'm pretty sure I'll be bruised, but as long as BB is okay it was worth it!

Look at that mean face! I love it!

Our little acrobat

Also, BB is still the little prankster. I mentioned before the appointment that I was kind of sad that this would be our last ultrasound, but they usually don't request more unless something is wrong so I'm okay with it being the last for that. Well turns out BB didn't want to show ALL of the heart so we have to do another one at our next appointment just so the Dr can get some good pics. He/She is such a little prankster. The HR was 142 ish so it was really strong and blood was flowing as it should. They also mentioned that the fingers were stretched out, which is good, because babies who have issues usually clench their fists. He/She would flutter them about a bit so that was so adorable. I'm seriously so in love with this baby!

Miss Anything? I guess if I had to say something I miss not having to go to the bathroom all the time. But not having periods kind of makes up for that haha

Movement: Yes! I get a couple days of lots of wiggles and then a couple days of lighter stuff, but we definitely get wiggles. It's the best! Larry thinks it's just twitches, but I'm sure he'll feel what I mean soon enough. He/She is a tough cookie so far and really packs a punch!

Cravings/Aversions: Nothing new.

Gender: Oh man we have to wait until Sunday now! We got our outfit from Buy Buy Baby and now it's just sitting on the fireplace waiting to be opened...calling my name! I thought it would be easy to resist, but it's harder than I thought. Can't wait for that already! The feet make me think BB is going to be a girl though...we'll see!

Labor Signs: Nope, feeling great!

Symptoms: As usual - peeing, hunger, back pains. That's about it.

Moods: Crying a lot still. I'm chalking this up to this week being an emotional one as it was when we lost the last baby so it's one I've been anxious for since finding out we were pregnant. I just want to get through it and hope that the crying relaxes a little after Christmas.

Looking forward to: Officially knowing the gender!! I'm officially crazy for thinking this would be a good idea haha.

19 Weeks!

How far along? 19 Weeks (BB is a grapefruit)

Maternity  Clothes? Still the unbuttoned pants, but I know I'm going to need bigger ones son.

Sleep? Other than the butt cramps and needing to get up in the middle of the night to pee (which depending on the time, the kitties automatically think is food time), it's great. Although I hardly sleep past 7 AM so weekends are a drag, but it's worth it. Especially if I get a nap

Best moment of the week: Officially feeling movement...see that section for more info :)

Miss Anything? Nothing at all that I won't get back (like I'm noticing sledders are out and I wish I could do that, but I know I'll get to eventually)

Movement: Oh yes!! So I've been feeling little twitches here and there and I thought it was my stomach twitching. Then last night I was feeling them all over and I realized they were too specific to be twitches...that was BB. Then I realized I have been feeling this for quite some time, but it wasn't the wiggling movement I was used to so I just ignored it. Makes me so happy to finally feel little kicks and punches. I can't wait to see the ultrasound to see exactly where BB is to know which movements are coming from which limb.

Cravings/Aversions: Nothing. I am loving how I feel I can eat anything that is on my approved food list.

Gender: The scan is a week from today and then we will know on Christmas...I'm so excited! The predictor I'm choosing for this week (and the last week I'm doing this) is emotions. Up until this last week I haven't felt really emotional, but this last week it's like anything will make me cry! So this says a girl. Since this is my last one I figured I'd tally the totals...we have 4 girl and 4 boy - literally 50/50 (whaaa?). So it'll be interesting to see what the results are (though I'm still feeling boy all the way)

Labor Signs: Nope, feeling great!

Symptoms: Like last week, peeing, hunger, back pains. That's about it.

Moods: Crying ALL. The. Time!!

Looking forward to: Finding out gender so we can do some shopping!!

We're (Fish) Parents!

Lots of exciting things in this household lately!! Larry and I have officially decided to start house stuff shopping since we finally closed on the Condo and have some spending money now. It kind of started randomly last weekend. You see, we had to go get specialty food for the kitties (to help with their oral care) and I happened to see the fish tank stuff. Now ever since we started the building process it's been clear that Larry wanted to get a fish tank at some point. I'm not the biggest fish fan, but we found some cool displays and figured if he wanted it I'm sure it would be low maintenance enough we could manage it at some point.

Seeing that fish stuff and how colorful and awesome it looked got me really excited to actually start it so we found some fish we liked and a tank, but realized it wouldn't fit in Larry's car so we decided to come back later. We then figured since we were out and about we should go look at some furniture at Furniture Row. We had gone before we moved, but now we could really find stuff we wanted. Turns out the couch I loved when we went last time was 50% off and super affordable so I thought it would be good to get now, but we still weren't sure. We decided once Andy got off work we'd bring him out to come try it and see how he liked it and we could also get our fish tank.

How pretty is our tank?

Fast forward to that night when Andy got home and we headed out. Fish tank was bought along with all the accessories we needed (aside from the stand, that came later) and went to get our couch ordered. It was such a good weekend.

We had to get the water set up before we could actually buy the fish so we worked on that this whole last week and then went to PetSmart again today. We found a couple Molly's and Platy's that we liked (the Molly's are Dalmatians and the Platy's were colorful so I figured the kitties would like that). We asked for a boy and girl one for each and it turns out both our girl fish are pregnant so we'll have babies soon.

How you'll find us ALL the time haha

Getting them in the water and settled was so cool. I could watch the tank for hours! It kind of looks pathetic with only the 4 tiny fish, but it's so colorful and the kitties seem to like it (although only Oscar has actually seen the fish) so it's pretty cool so far. I'm excited to see what we end up doing with this fish tank. We wanted to get some shark fish, but they are aggressive and could eat the babies so I'm not sure we'll do that this time, but we'll see. We want to get some frogs, sucker fish, maybe a couple cat fish, and others just to have a good eco system in there. It'll be awesome.

They love the fishies haha

Anyways, I have to go, it's dinner time for the fish and I love watching them eat :)