Photo update!

I'm at my parent's house for a few days now and thought I'd take advantage of the internet and try to get some photos updated.  I'll be going back several months starting around September, October...(My gosh, Mali was 15 months old then...where does the time go?)   

(September 2013- Mali was 15 months old).  We were home visiting my parents and my dad was holding Mali.  I love how relaxed he looks in this photo.

Our sweet Pooks!

Mali with my parent's dog, Hannah, standing at their front door.  They were both interested in something outside.  I love their profiles and especially Mali in his little overalls.

So serious...

Oh, my heart!  Our little baby- he does look little in this photo and so very tired.

November 2013- Mali loved playing with these little toys that my mom had: little dice and game markers- little wooden cars and people.  He mostly liked putting them into and taking them out of different sized prescription bottles.  He spent a good 30 to 45 minutes playing with them while we were visiting.   

I love his concentration mouth and his hands with his little pinkie finger sticking out.  So cute.

November 2013- When we were visiting my parents over Thanksgiving we went to IKEA and for those who have been to IKEA you know it's a big store!  About halfway through, Mali got very tired and since I hadn't brought the stroller we had to lay him in the cart to nap.  Thankfully I had the blanket for him to soften the seat. 

I love his bottom lip sticking out.

My mom and sister put the stuffed bear behind him as a "pillow".

My sweet sleeping baby. :)  We just let him sleep because, in our house, the phrase is:  "Never wake a sleeping baby!"

November 2013- Oh,  my large-ness!  I was pregnant with Olivia....

and I was rounder than round with another five, actually six, weeks to go (since she was a week late)!!

Jesse attempting to have a belly!  It wasn't quite working!

More updates/photos to come...!

A few of my favorites from the last month and a half...

It is hard to believe that Malachi is 3 months old today! At ten weeks old he weighed 11 pounds 9 ounces which means he has more than doubled his birth weight. He is smiling all the time now and growing like a weed and I don't want to miss any of it. We just love him! (The photos are in reverse order- the oldest time wise are at the bottom...meaning he's younger in those photos).

He's here!

He has Jesse's lips
and my nose

10 tiny (but long) fingers
10 tiny (but long) toes

Introducing....

Malachi Michael

born on Tuesday, June 12th (about a month early) at 8:35 pm (EST)
5 pounds, 5 ounces
19 inches long

(It definitely wasn't planned this way, but he was born on Jesse's sister's birthday)

He had a bit of a hard time getting here. I had pre-eclampsia which turned into HELLP syndrome and I ended up having an emergency c-section, but we are all doing well now and are healthy (although sleep deprived!). We'll be released from the hospital on Friday, June 15th and are looking forward to going home.

I will be posting the birth story soon, but it starts with this picture below on Monday evening, June 11th...the day we were admitted to the hospital!

An update

(I'm apologizing ahead of time if this post sounds jumbled or not coherent...)

About the middle of May I started having really bad swelling in my hands and feet. I mentioned it at my doctor's appointment on May 21st and the doctor took some blood and asked me to come in on Friday, May 25th to follow up. When I went in on the 25th, she said that the blood work came back with elevated liver levels, I also had some protein in my urine, and high blood pressure. She gave me the diagnosis of pre-eclampsia.

At the Friday appointment, Jesse and I knew there was a slight possibility that I might be admitted to the hospital but we had still semi-planned on going to my parent's house for Memorial day weekend. The doctor decided to admit me to the hospital to lower my blood pressure. She vaguely talked about inducing me. At the time I was 34 weeks. Being in the hospital helped my swelling go down so I came home from the hospital with instructions to be on bed rest....only a shower every other day, no work, cooking, cleaning, or laundry, etc.

Since then we have been to several doctor appointments and had several ultrasounds to measure how our baby is doing.

I had an appointment this past Monday (June 4th) and my blood pressure was back up. The doctor wanted to induce me then but I really wanted to wait until 37 weeks. She told me to come back in on Thursday (the 7th) for an ultrasound. On the night of the 6th, Jesse gave me a blessing which was definitely a comfort and we got everything ready in case the doctor sent us straight over to the hospital.

We went to the ultrasound on Thursday and the technician watched the baby for practice breaths, movement, etc. and he only scored a 6/8. The doctor wasn't happy, but my blood pressure was back down which was good. She then told us to come back in the next day (Friday the 8th) for another ultrasound and she would make a decision then about what to do. They also took blood on Thursday. Jesse and I knew that both the baby and I would have to score perfectly (me on blood pressure and him on his breathing, etc) in order for us not to be induced. On Friday, the baby passed his test and my blood pressure was down, but my blood results came back again with elevated liver levels which the doctor wasn't too happy about. She asked us what we wanted to do...I looked at Jesse and he said what ever she (the doctor) thought was best...

The doctor said I'm a ticking time bomb...and said she had planned to send us straight over to the hospital for an induction yesterday, but couldn't remember what time our appointment was.

So the plan right now is that we check into the hospital on Wednesday evening June 13th for an induction. I have another ultrasound and appointment this coming Monday.

My birth plan has gone straight out the window. I didn't want to be induced, I didn't want an epidural (which I will probably end up getting since pitocin contractions are much worse) and I wanted to wait until 40 weeks to deliver.

But, you know what? The baby will be fine. He will be a little over three weeks early and right now he's measuring about 5 pounds 9 ounces, but he'll be fine. And in the end we will have our sweet boy! I just have to remember that and not focus in the parts that aren't going as planned.

I've been an emotional wreck and cried almost every day this week wondering whether there was something I/we could have done that could have prevented this and questioning the decision to be induced. I know my high blood pressure is not really going away and I don't want to put our baby in danger by keeping him inside, but at the same time I want him to develop as much as he can inside since I know the most brain development happens during the last several weeks.

And yes, I might be a little dramatic (and I'm sure it's partly hormones) but as I was crying one night I told Jesse that I didn't want something to happen to our baby because of a decision I/we made that caused him to have trouble and maybe not live. And, Jesse, the wonderful husband that he is, mentioned that even if our baby boy takes just one breath, at least he came here and got the body that he needed and we will have the opportunity to be able to raise him again. Which of course, caused me to cry even more. But how grateful I am for the gospel and the knowledge that we have.

I was crying in bed this morning and Jesse turned and held me and being the wise husband that he is said to me: "You can't second guess yourself, it'll just eat you up. You have to make the best decision and just go with it." So right now our and the doctor's decision is for me to be induced on Wednesday.

I know things will be fine, but if you remember, keep us in your prayers, okay?
_____________________

(I haven't been blogging because we don't have internet at our apartment, but I decided it would be alright to come to my sister's apartment (she lives just across the street) so I could update everybody).

Oh, and I've been knitting, watching lots of movies, and reading on bed rest.

Poor Jesse told me on Friday that it feels like he's been having a heart attack for the past two weeks because of all the stress from the doctor appointments, ultrasounds, and wondering whether "today" would be the day that I would be induced. I'm so, so thankful for his love and support as well as the love of my family and friends. Thank you!

Motherhood

(32 weeks pregnant)

Motherhood is on my mind quite a lot these days. This Mother's day will be unique in that it will be the only one in my life that I am almost a mother but not quite yet...

A little over a year ago, in February 2011, I received a diagnosis from a doctor that would possibly result in me having trouble bearing children. I remember sitting with my parents after the doctor visit and just crying. The thing I most wanted in my life was to be a mother. I was trying to do everything right- why would it possibly be denied me? At the time, Jesse and I had not been on our first date. Little did I know that less than a year later, I would be pregnant. It came quickly. Jesse knew I might have trouble having children, and he was fine with it. He said we could explore other options if we couldn't have our own children and for that I was grateful, but deep down I still wanted a biological baby of our own.

As a result, pending motherhood has me thinking about a lot of things.
Some of them obvious such as, "will our baby boy have irresistibly chubby cheeks?" or "will he have long eyelashes like his dad?"

Yet, deep down, other questions and thoughts tug at my heart as well. Hopes and dreams for our baby...

I need to teach our boy to know the love of his Heavenly Father and savior, Jesus Christ and how to help him feel when the Holy Ghost is whispering to his heart and mind.
I need to teach him to honor the priesthood and to honor womanhood.
I need to teach him how to honor his sacred ordinances and covenants.
And hopefully being an example of, kindness, charity, compassion, reverence, humility, adventure, and curiosity, he will learn these things also.
I need to teach him how to pray and read scriptures.
How to love life.
How to not be afraid of change.

I recently read a quote by Gordon B. Hinckley (source):
"You are the bearers of the children. You are they who nurture them and establish within them the habits of their lives. No other work reaches so close to divinity as does the nurturing of the sons and daughters of God."

No other work reaches so close to divinity. Men, even though they hold the priesthood, are not as close to divinity as mothers. That's a big responsibility. Mothers, who nurture their children, are as close to divine as you can get, without being God. What a great responsibility mothers have.

I know time goes quickly. I know that this babe that I am now carrying will one day grow up and hopefully marry and have children of his own. But I don't want to think about that right now because it will make me cry. I want to be the best mother that I can be for him in the moment.

Yes, this pregnancy has been difficult in some ways- I was pretty sick for the first trimester and I've been swollen and itchy and famished lately. But, I love feeling our baby move inside of me. I love feeling his kicks and somersaults. All in all, this has been more wonderful that I imagined.

I'm grateful to my own mom for raising me the way she did. I'm grateful that she taught me what motherhood is all about and for being patient with me when I wasn't easy to be patient with. I'm grateful she taught me to love the gospel and to pray and gain a testimony for myself.

I'm grateful to Jesse's mom for raising a man who knows what it means to honor the priesthood and respect womanhood and with a desire to be a father. I'm grateful that she let him be his own person. And even though they have gone through some trials as a family, I'm grateful for the love she showed and the strength she had. I'm grateful she taught him to love the scriptures and how to cook and sew and do laundry.

How very grateful I am for the opportunity to be a mother- I hope I can live up to this divine responsibility.

And now two quotes that I love about motherhood:

"There is no one perfect way to be a good mother. Each situation is unique. Each mother has different challenges, different skills and abilities, and certainly different children. The choice is different and unique for each mother and each family. Many are able to be “full-time moms,” at least during the most formative years of their children’s lives, and many others would like to be. Some may have to work part-or full-time; some may work at home; some may divide their lives into periods of home and family and work. What matters is that a mother loves her children deeply and, in keeping with the devotion she has for God and her husband, prioritizes them above all else." Russell M. Ballard

“You have nothing in this world more precious than your children. When you grow old, when your hair turns white and your body grows weary, when you are prone to sit in a rocker and meditate on the things of your life, nothing will be so important as the question of how your children have turned out ... Do not trade your birthright as a mother for some bauble of passing value ... The baby you hold in your arms will grow quickly as the sunrise and the sunset of the rushing days.” Gordon B. Hinckley

Happy Mother's Day!

Fact.

Fact: Jesse and I have a word (or two) of the week usually every week.
Fact: About a week ago the word was bulbous.

Fact: My belly is becoming very bulbous.

Fact: We made pork chops with roasted asparagus (plus olive oil and kosher salt) for dinner last night at 9:00pm.
Fact: We both agreed it was a very delicious meal and needs to be made more often.

(Not our picture and not the recipe we used, but it looks very similar to what ours looked like. Fact.)

Fact: We made a very big decision last night.
Fact: One that will impact us for the next many years of our lives.
Fact: We are both very excited.
Fact: But, we both had trouble falling asleep.

Fact: We are taking a birthing class.
Fact: It is a four week class and we've already been to two weeks so far.
Fact: The teacher mentioned that in some cultures, people use the placenta as fertilizer in their garden.
Fact: I said that everybody could give all the placentas to Jesse and he would plant them at the Arboretum.
Fact: Jesse said he would not do that.
Fact: Somebody asked "if the placenta is planted does it grow a baby?"
Fact: Everybody laughed.

Fact: We talked about birthing helps in the class on Tuesday and forceps and vacuum were used as visual aids.
Fact: One of the class members put the vacuum on his forehead (of his own accord) and had another class member pull on it to see what it would feel like for the baby.
Fact: He was sitting there with a vacuum bopping around on his forehead.
Fact: We all laughed.
Fact: He had a red mark/bruise on his head for the rest of the night. (Post edit: And they said it stayed there for about the next 4 days!)

Fact: My shoes make my feet stink.
Fact: At lunch, I took my shoes off and wiped both my feet with a disinfecting wipe.
Fact: I think I need to get rid of those shoes.

Fact: Jesse is at the temple tonight helping with baptisms.
Fact: He won't be home till late.
Fact: I miss him.

Fact: Baby Dahl kicks a lot.
Fact: I really like it!

Fact: It is Friday!

Happy Friday!!

Edit- Thanks to everybody that commented in the last post! You are all too kind!

On March 8th, 2012...

For our five-monthiversary, I made chocolate cupcakes with chocolate chips on top.


I put a candle in one and we blew it out together on the count of three.


Happy five months (almost 6 months now!) to us! :)

Two conversations

The following converstation took place yesterday as I stared at Jesse while he was eating a hot dog:

Mr. Dahl: "What are you thinking about?"
Me: "Just how much I love you."
Mr. Dahl: "Oh, brother."
Me: I start laughing and cover up my cheeks...
Mr. Dahl: "Why are you blushing?"
Me: "I don't know, I guess because you said 'oh, brother'..."
I keep looking at him as tears well up in my eyes and start to roll down my cheeks
Mr. Dahl: "I said 'oh, brother' to make you laugh."
Me: "I know, I'm not crying about that but because of how much I love you."
He stops eating, gets out of his chair and stands behind me and hugs me.
Mr. Dahl: "I love you too- so much. But no crying!"

I have been craving a bagel with lox and cream cheese for almost my whole pregnancy and have been looking for a Jewish deli for a while to see if they had it on their menu. Jesse does not like like lox, but recently one of his co-workers (who is Jewish) gave him the name of a Jewish deli here in town. I was really excited when he told me and I have been trying to convince Jesse for us to go there (so at least I can order something Jewish!....

There was one hot dog left when this took place:

Me: "Do you want the last hot dog?"
Mr. Dahl: "No"
Me: "Ok, I'm going to eat it then."
Mr. Dahl: "Ok, but you have to heat it up first."
Me: "I thought about eating it raw- I used to do that." *
Mr. Dahl: "I can eat them raw, but you can't. I think we should go to that Jewish deli-
I would order the lox and eat it right in front of you.
I might be gagging while I eat it and probably couldn't swallow, but it might be worth it."
Me: "You wouldn't do that, it would be a waste of good lox! I would probably grab it off your plate and just eat it myself then."
Mr. Dahl: "I've thought about doing it and you can't eat it."

He's sure trouble (which he warned me about before we got married), but I sure love him!

*I know some pregnant women choose to eat sushi, deli meats, soft cheeses, etc while pregnant and I don't judge you, but I choose not to, thus the pregnancy craving that can't be filled. Jesse is really good about reminding me to heat certain foods up before I eat them.

Wonderman and past few days

I'm married to a wonderful man! Jesse puts up with my crazy pregnancy thoughts and...

came home from work early yesterday and cleaned up the whole apartment!

Let me back track a little bit- on Monday Jesse called me when I was on my way home from work and said that he still had some work left to do at the Arboretum and asked if I wanted to pick something up for dinner and meet him there so we could eat and walk around for a little bit after he finished.

I made a stop at the apartment to grab something he needed and to go to the bathroom. There was a note on our front door which I briefly read and said they found evidence of bedbugs in adjoining apartments and would be treating our apartment as a precaution as well....

Then as I stepped onto the carpet in front of the bathroom I noticed it was squishing down- not normal. Then I stepped into the bathroom and realized that several of the ceiling panels had fallen down and the floor was wet. Water had also seeped into the bedroom carpet right in front the bathroom, thus the squishiness of the carpet.

So I grabbed what Jesse needed and headed out.

Later, when we got home Jesse was changing and noticed that the majority of the clothes in our closet were wet too along with the carpet in the closet. Not good.

I called emergency maintenance and the maintenance man said that there had been some sort of leak in the apartment above us and apparently they had failed to check our apartment to see if there was any damage! Geez! I informed him there had been damage. He said he would let them know in the morning.

I showed the bedbug letter to Jesse and we read through it- they wanted to come on Thursday (yesterday) to treat for them and we needed to have all our clothes bagged up, sheets off the bed, furniture moved away from the walls 18 inches, etc. so they could get in and spray.

When I came home from work on Tuesday, my sister had said the maintenance guy came and just put a dehumidifier in the bedroom for the leaked water. That's it!

By Wednesday the carpets had started to smell like mildew and I was getting upset at the maintenance people since the hadn't been back to do anything.

Wednesday evening, Jesse and I bagged up our clothes and transferred them to our cars and moved the furniture out from the wall. Well, he moved the furniture and I bagged the clothes...

We talked about it and decided that because of the possible side effects of the bug chemicals we didn't really want them to spray because of me being pregnant. We also have finches and we weren't sure what would happen to them. But Jesse said that by law they're required to spray when there are bedbugs. I said I would much rather deal with the bedbugs than the effects of the chemicals and that if our baby was born with a birth defect because of them we were going to sue and I made him unwillingly pinkie promise!

I asked Jesse if he could take the finches to the Arboretum and he said they wouldn't allow it. My response (which was mostly hormone based as I look back): "Don't you care about the finches?" He said "yes I do. But, we can buy new finches - we can't buy a new baby and if they don't spray because of our baby, the finches will be fine too."

We decided to write a note and let them know.
Jesse wrote:
"Please spray only if absolutely necessary.
My wife is 5 months pregnant.
At this stage the developing baby
is extremely susceptible to pesticides.

Thanks
Jesse D.

The baby thanks you too!"

We left the note up and went to bed.

During lunch yesterday I spoke with the lady in the office and told her about the mildewing carpet and asked if they were going to do anything. She said the maintenance guy was in our apartment right then putting up new ceiling panels in the bathroom and said once the carpet dried a little bit more they would have it steam cleaned. I had a very curt email ready to send to her about the problems!

When I came home from work yesterday, Jesse had cleaned everything up, put all the furniture back, brought all the clothes back in, and vacuumed the apartment. He said they had written on the note that they had sprayed very lightly only in the cracks.

Thankfully! The finches are fine and so is the baby (hopefully).

Good thing since we don't have money to sue!

P.S. I really hope morning sickness isn't coming back. I've thrown up twice in the past two weeks (including last night). But complaining would really be silly, since we're so blessed! We're having a baby!!

P.P.S. I'm pretty sure our son thinks my bladder is his own personal little trampoline. :) "It's so bouncy!"

P.P.P.S. I realize this post would be much more effective and interesting with pictures and I have them, but they're on my phone and my computer at work won't let me transfer them. So you'll just have to wait.

Sweet bundle of puppy dog tails...

For those of you who voted "boy" on the poll, you would be correct!

He was very, very active during the ultrasound and every time the technician tried to do a scan he would move around or hide his face with his hand (we did get some good images though). Despite all the movement he was definitely not shy about letting us know he was a "he". In the words of the ultrasound tech "I really don't have to explain what that is, do I?"
Since I was born with a birth defect and had to have surgery a few months after being born, we were referred to a high-risk OB for this ultrasound. They did a thorough anatomy exam and said everything looks really good- he's growing right on schedule, thankfully.

If his movement on the ultrasound is any indication, I think he will give us a run for our money! We're so excited!

Boy or girl?

Jesse and I are going to the anatomy ultrasound tomorrow (Thursday) for the baby, and if he/she cooperates we can find out the gender too!!

At first I wanted to keep the gender a surprise and not find out until the baby was born, but now I've decided I really want to know- Jesse wanted to know all along. My mom is planning on making the blessing outfit and it would be easier so she has enough time to make it as well. We'll also be able to prepare better ourselves! Not that we'll get all blue clothes if the baby is a boy or all pink if a girl, but maybe a little bit more gender specific clothes.

I'm super excited though! I have a feeling the baby is a boy! And Jesse also thinks boy! My sister and mom aren't sure, but my sister sometimes says the baby will be a man-child, (and she says it like that because I dislike that word!) But all my friends/relatives that are having babies are all having girls! :)

I put a little poll up on the sidebar (at the very top) so you can guess, too! ---------->

Here are some pregnancy symptoms that might help you:

1. I had lots of morning sickness up until about 16 weeks.

2. At the last appointment the baby's heartbeat was around 160.

3. I've felt the baby kick starting a day before 19 weeks.

4. I've only had a little heartburn, but it's not constant and not severe at all.

5. I can still fit into my regular pants but I can't button or zip them up- I have to use the belly band and most of my shirts are too short now.

6. I haven't really craved any food, but I do drink lots of milk and eat lots of cheese.

7. I tend to be more on the cool side, temperature wise.

8. I don't know if I'm carrying low or high. I guess I'd say more in the middle?

Regardless of whether the baby is a boy or girl, we're super excited to welcome this new little one into our lives and we really just hope he/she is healthy!

OK, guess away...!

Some things I love about my valentine

Photo taken at our wedding

:he always tells me that he loves me
:he is willing to scratch my back and give me back massages when I ask (even though he doesn't always want to)
:he takes out the trash
:he likes to cuddle
:he makes the bed
:he makes me laugh
:he is able to calm me down and say exactly what I need to hear when I'm upset
:he vacuums the apartment
:he makes up the best nicknames for me
:he talks to our baby every day and is going to be the best father
:I get to be his forever valentine!

Zelda Fitzgerald once said, "Nobody has ever measured, even poets, how much a heart can hold." and I know that's true- each day my love grows for Jesse and I am so blessed to have him as my eternal companion. He helps me to be a better person and I'm grateful I can spend the rest of this life (and eternity) with him. I often tell him "I love you much more than yesterday, but not as much as tomorrow."

I hope you all have a wonderful day and celebrate those you love!

bwak, bwak chicken

My sister and I went to the libray last night while Jess took a nap.

As I was looking through the videos I came across a DVD that looked so good I just had to borrow it- The Natural History of the Chicken.



I happily showed it to Jesse when I got home and he really couldn't contain his excitement* at wanting to watch it!

Have you seen this movie?

*not really- he looked kind of doubtful actually...

On my mind

1. I was looking at my blog postings and realized that I wrote just three posts in January. That's sad. Really, really sad.

2. Valentine's day is a week away. I have a slight idea of what I'm doing for Jesse (and other family members) but I have to solidify it for sure.

3. I made two loaves of homemade bread on Saturday night with our Kitchen-aid. By Sunday afternoon they were both gone except for a little end piece. Jesse loves bread (homemade especially) and I must admit, it was pretty good.
I forgot to take a picture but I will definitely be using that recipe again.

4. In the space of 7 months there will have been (will be) three new babies born on Jesse's side of the family:
My brother and sister-in-law (Jesse's brother and his wife) had a baby in December.
My other brother and sister-in-law (Jesse's sister and her husband) are due with their fifth child in April.
And our baby is due in July.
That will put the number of grandchildren up to 7 over a period of 7 months! Crazy!

5. We went grocery shopping last night since we had basically no food in our apartment. The store was pretty empty since we went about 9:30pm. As we passed the cereal aisle Jesse commented that when wheat has been bad, its punishment is that it's made into Cream of Wheat. That comment made me laugh.
Jesse doesn't like Cream of Wheat, but I do- especially with brown sugar. It's comfort food.


6. I haven't been able to find any maternity clothes yet. The Old Navy here doesn't have a maternity section. I have maybe one or two other stores to look at and if I don't find anything I'm not sure what I'll do.

7. I finished Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban over the weekend. Yes, I'm just now reading the series for the first time. I have this theory about waiting until the hype dies down to read a book. This way I don't have to wait 15 years for the book to come at the library.

8. Jesse read two books this weekend. He is a very fast reader and once he starts a book he wants to finish it in one sitting. He'll usually start a book Friday night and then stay up until the wee hours on Saturday to finish. He read books 6 and 7 in The Last Apprentice series.

9. Most of my friends who are pregnant are having girls. I'm now excited to find out whether our baby will be a boy or a girl...

10. I checked out a book from the library called The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding. When my sister saw the title she laughed. When Jesse read various chapters of the book he said that I shouldn't check out anymore pregnancy/breastfeeding books from the library since he now knows more about female bodies (i.e. my body) than he ever really wanted to know!

Have a good Tuesday!

P.S. The package that I talked about in this post still hasn't arrived. Except in my imagination.

What's in a name

I'm sorry most of the posts on here are now about our baby/babies. But that's a lot of what I think about now.


Jesse and I have had discussions recently about baby names.

I will give you a little background in case you don't know:

Our last name is Dahl, and it's pronounced basically like "doll" as in "the baby...."

Another fact is that Jesse is a horticulturist which means that he works with plants for a living. (And he loves it!)

So, that's the little background info.

Like I said, we have been discussing baby names.

These are some of the names I suggested:

-Porcelain
-China
-Rag
-Paper
-Harry
-Kenneth and Barbara- (We are just having one baby, but this was my suggestion before we knew it was just one in case we were having twins). Their nicknames would be Ken and Barbie.
-I also suggested Ann and Andy for boy/girl twins.
-And I thought our youngest child could be named Baby.

I also suggested
-Daisy
-Summer Flower
-Autumn
-Pansy
-Rose (which is my middle name too)
-Niblet (cute ear of corn)

Jesse said he wasn't so sure if I could have naming privileges anymore.

But then! Jesse suggested that we name all our children with the first name of "The" and for middle names use
Rag
Porcelain
China
Paper, etc

I tell you...our poor children.

Oh, you want to hear my sister's nickname for the baby? Baby Dot. Isn't it cute?

*****

Wowee. Pregnancy does some funny things to my emotions. I think it's those hormonoees.

A little while ago I ordered some items from LDS distribution. The order form said they would arrive in 5-10 business days. Monday was the 10th business day, so yesterday I decided to call and see what happened since we still hadn't received the items.

As I spoke to the nice lady on the phone she said she would check and see what happened to them since they left the warehouse last week.
She came back on the phone and cheerfully told me: "well the box arrived today" (meaning yesterday).
I politely informed her, as I was opening the door to double check, that it had not arrived. "Well, I'm sorry. Is there anything else I can help you with?" she so nicely asked. "Nope," I replied "just waiting for our items to still get here." "Have a great day" she said. When I got off the phone I told Jesse what happened since it was so funny to me. I then proceeded to chuckle about it for a good bit. When my sister got home from work I told her the items had arrived. "Where's the box?" she asked. "Umm, not here yet."

Later as we were falling asleep, I brought it up to Jesse again and started giggling so hard about the whole thing. In fact, every time I thought about it I started laughing again. The lady was so matter of fact that the box had arrived!
Jesse looked at me like I was off the deep end and said "I think those pregnancy hormones are making you crazy."

Oh, man...

odds and ends

There was a fire in my sister's apartment this past Thursday.

She came home from work to a missed call from her manager and a friend from the YSA branch who heard about it on the news and had also called her.
She came and asked Jesse and I to go over with her and when we got there her manager was standing outside waiting for her.

All her belongings were covered in soot (the apartment was black) and smelled like smoke.
The apartment is unlivable now thanks to the damage from the smoke/soot and the front windows being knocked down by the firemen.
Thankfully she wasn't home when it happened.
It could have been way worse.

She has been staying with Jesse and I while things calm down
and she can decide what she wants to do.
I'm glad we live in the same town so she can stay with us during this time.
If you have a moment, include her in your prayers. They would be much appreciated.

***
On our second month anniversary we bought a kitchen-aid! An industrial size one! We received some money as a wedding gift, two gift cards, and had a coupon for the store.

We opened it this weekend! (I wanted to open it earlier, but our apartment is so little).

On Thursday we made chocolate sour cream bundt cake. It was so moist thanks to the sour cream.
(Doesn't saying it remind you of this? Bad quality, but you get the idea)

Then on Friday we made peach and raspberry crumble. Delicious as always!

And then last night we made white chocolate macadamia nut cookies.

We all thoroughly enjoyed them.

***

Over the holidays my mom and I went to the thrift store and she bought us some
adorable, adorable baby clothes. This was our first gift.
We received our second baby gift this weekend.
A friend of mine is due with her baby (girl) around the beginning of February and she had an extra baby thermometer which she gifted to us.

***

I have another doctor's appointment at the end of next week. We can find out the sex of our baby in about 5 weeks!

My mom sent me this video which might be helpful for my friends who are having babies.



So interesting. After watching it I could definitely remember babies crying like that. I'm excited to put this to use once our little one comes.

Hunger

Thank you all for your comments on the last post!
(Long post...fair warning).

(Did you read about our secret?)

This seems like the story of my life.

Since I've been pregnant some people have asked me how I've felt and my response is:
"Mostly I just feel hungry and nauseous at the same time".

The problem is, when I'm hungry, I'm crabby.
It used to be really, really bad when I was younger.
And my parents started noticing the signs that I needed food.
They would encourage me to eat, but usually by that time it was too late.
Since then I've gotten a lot better about realizing when I need to eat.
But...sometimes I still don't eat in time.

And then I have to control the hunger monster that wants to come out and attack everybody.

Even though Jesse is a great cook, when we got married, I think he was excited for me to cook dinners (and I was too since I like to cook).

Then we found out I was pregnant and then morning (oops, I mean all day) sickness set in.
And then I didn't feel like cooking, let alone eating, even though I was really hungry almost all the time.

Jesse has been so patient and so willing to cook dinner on those days when I just don't feel like doing it and just want to go take a nap.

So yesterday after we got home from church
Jesse made chicken noodle soup (a recipe he's perfected)
and I made grilled cheese sandwiches to go with it.

Then we took a nap.
When we woke up we went for a drive to look for a farm to buy.

Since I had been feeling like a bad wife,
when we got back from the drive, I made tapioca pudding from scratch (because we both like it)
and then I made Jesse two more grilled cheese sandwiches
in the new cast iron skillet I received for Christmas.
He really liked them.

I'm 14 weeks pregnant this week and I thought morning sickness was gone
but then Thursday I got sick twice and ended up staying home from work on Friday.
I'm hoping this week it gets better and disappears for good.
Because mostly? I'm just sick and tired of throwing up.
Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Once the nausea disappears, I just have to come up with and make some good dinner recipes!

****************

Here are some other thoughts I've had about food:

Do you you feel sorry for regular oranges now that Cuties clementines are so popular?? I do!
It seems that nobody wants to eat an orange you actually have to take time to peel.
I mean, I can't really talk too much since I eat Cuties much more often than oranges and they're so much easier than peeling/eating an orange, but I try to eat oranges every now and then so they don't feel quite so bad about themselves anymore. I don't want them to feel completely sad and rejected.

Some foods that I can no longer eat because morning sickness makes my stomach reject them:
-Hamburgers
-Tacos with ground meat (oh, the smell!)
-Anything with ground meat and onions together (I can eat onions separately but not with the meat)
-Chicken nuggets
-French fries
-Sprite
-BBQ sauce
-Ribs
-Certain kinds of soup
-Rice krispies cereal

Foods my stomach is still okay with:
-Quesadillas made in our George Foreman grill
-Saltines
-Bananas! (almost the one food that I basically lived on for a week)
-Tapioca pudding
-Pita bread
-Most fruit
-Milk
-Grilled cheese
-Toast (sometimes with butter and jam)
-Mint chocolate chip ice cream
-Ice chips (not really a food, but regular water doesn't stay down too well)
-Frost Glacier Freeze (and Glacier Freeze) Gatorade

***************

P.S. If you've been pregnant where do you buy maternity clothes?
I've been using a belly band, which helps with my pants,
but my shirts are getting too short...

P.P.S. Jesse talks to our baby every day.
Sometimes he will say things like,
"Kick mom in the bladder so she has to get up during the night to go to the bathroom."
And I usually laugh and give him a frowny face.
But usually, when we're both home from work, he'll wrap his arms around my belly,
get down on his knees and say,
"Hi baby, I've missed you. Did you have a good day? I hope you didn't make mama too sick today. I love you."
It usually makes me cry.

I really, truly love my husband. To the moon and back. He is going to be a great dad.

"The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear"

I've seen this around and loved reading about other's traditions. I hope you enjoy.

1. Egg nog or hot chocolate? Hot chocolate and egg nog. My cousin always sends my family a package each year and he includes the best hot chocolate from his store. We try to make it last all year. Yum. I like it with whipped cream.
I like egg nog too, but I usually have to add some milk to it because it's pretty thick to drink by itself.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Santa usually wraps presents but it's different wrapping paper obviously than the rest of the presents. The rest of the presents are from your parents. Santa also fills the stockings with unwrapped presents.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? Growing up we sometimes had colored but usually they were white. White lights are so beautiful on the tree when all the other lights are off. This year Jesse and I have blue and white lights on our tree (Go UK!) and colored lights around our windows.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? We've talked about it, but don't have any yet. (Mistletoe fact I never knew from my horticulturist husband: it's a parasitic plant that is spread by bird poop and grows on the top of trees and has to be shot down with a gun! Did you know that?!)

5. When do you put your decorations up? Growing up we would get our tree the Saturday after Thanksgiving and usually decorate then, too. This year Jesse and I had to wait because we were out of town and got our (very first together!) Christmas tree on December 3rd.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? Hmm, does pumpkie pie count?

7. Favorite holiday memory as a child? I loved it when my sister and I would wake up before my parents and go downstairs (and see the tree all lit in the dark room) to open our stockings. We were allowed to open our stockings- we would usually take a few things out and then put them back till our parents woke up, but had to wait for our parents to open presents. Also, Ohio Village- see #16.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I don't really remember, but I still believe in Santa 100%.
Santa may not be a "fact," but he is "true."
He may not be a person, but he is millions of people who all work together to bring children beautiful Christmases.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? We wait until Christmas morning to open presents.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? This year we bought blue and white bulbs and tinsel string to decorate. I was just saying to Jesse the other day that we should have bought an ornament when we were on our honeymoon in Rome to have a tradition of ornaments from where we travel. We are going to start the tradition of buying each other an ornament each year to hang on our tree.
My great aunt also made my sister and I an ornament every year when we were growing up from the song the 12 days of Christmas. I'll have to see what happened to those since they're probably still at my parent's house.

11. Snow! Love it or dread it? LOVE! I wish there was snow NOW! I want and need a white Christmas. Jesse doesn't like snow so much because he has to be out working in it, so I try to scale back my love of it, cause I don't want him to be too cold. But, good thing we aren't staying in Kentucky because it's supposed to be raining and in the 40s! Christmas isn't Christmas without snow!

12. Can you ice skate? I've been a few times, but I can't really skate so well.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? The best memories don't really have anything to do with gifts, just the love that my family had for each other and the time that we spent together.

14. What’s the most important thing about the holidays for you? Family. I love spending time with them.

15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? Spritz cookies with maraschino cherries in the center, of course pumpkin pie, and caramel (or cinnamon) pecan rolls.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Growing up we would almost always pick a family in our ward that was less fortunate and buy things for them and then doorbell ditch on their porch or do the same thing with cookies.
We also went to Ohio Village which was a reconstructed 1800s village. We would decorate cookies, sing with the carolers, go around to the different shops, and feed the animals. It was magical since they only used candles and stayed true to the time period. I'm so glad I have those memories since the village is now gone. (Well, the actual village is still there but they've changed everything and it's not the same so we don't go anymore).
In the past few years we went to Slate Run which is similar to Ohio Village and participate in some old time Christmas traditions. (Their gingerbread men were the best!)

17. What tops your tree? Right now it's star that blinks white and blue to go with our UK themed tree. We might keep it or make/have a different one next year.

18. Which do you prefer: giving or receiving? Giving, especially watching the faces of people when they open their gift and knowing it will be something they will love. I don't do homemade gifts very often, but I think next year I might start.

19. Candy canes: yuck or yum? Yum. You can crunch them or munch them or suck on them or chew them up. I've only eaten one so far this year, but it was delicious. I should eat more because mint helps my stomach. I like sucking on the end to make it sharp and turning it into a little sword. We have them on our tree, but I kind of forget about eating them.

20. Favorite Christmas show? Home Alone, A Child's Christmas in Wales, The Santa Clause, A Charlie Brown Christmas, Elf, White Christmas, While You Were Sleeping (which I always watch every Christmas with my sister).

21. Saddest Christmas song? That Christmas Shoes song. Jesse and I heard it on the radio the other day and I cry every time I hear it so I plugged my ears so I wouldn't cry. He said it's one of his favorite songs even though it does make him cry. (I like the message behind the song, but it's just so sad!)

22. What is your favorite Christmas song? I love "I Wonder As I Wander", "Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella", "I'm dreaming of a White Christmas", and "Good King Wenceslas" and silly, I know, but I love the Chipmunks too! I could listen to them for long periods, but I usually only listen for a little bit cause I know Jesse doesn't really like them and can only stand them in short bursts.
Some songs like "Last Christmas I Gave You My Heart" can just go away. The radio plays that song toooo often and it drives me nuts.
I like good Christmas music.

23. Do you use an Advent calendar? We had one that we used growing up, but we don't have one this year. I should try making one for next year.

24. Do you go to church on Christmas? Not unless it's Sunday, and there's regular church, but on my mission we went one year with a family to their Church on Christmas Eve and it was beautiful to sing carols and see the church lit up with candles.

25. What were your Christmas morning rules as a kid? We weren't supposed to wake our parents up early, but we could open our stocking. Brenna and I would usually go downstairs and look in our stocking and eat some candy and sort though the gifts and then wait for our parents to wake up. If we felt they were taking too long, we would sneak up to their room and quietly wake them up so they would get up and we could open presents.

5 days till Christmas!!

33

I know it's been three weeks since I last blogged...

Jesse and I have technically been married for one month this past Tuesday- the 8th- (though our actual four weeks was on Saturday the 5th) and Jesse brought me a bouquet of flowers he picked out and arranged himself! I gave him a card. He's so thoughful and I love him to bits! I'm so thankful for him.

We were in the kitchen the other day and had the following conversation:
Jesse: "Why are you so beautiful?"
Me: "Because Heavenly Father just made me that way." (Normally I'm not that pride-ful(?) about my appearance but I was trying to be semi-funny too)
Jesse: "I thank Him every night for you!"

We'll be going to Mississippi and staying in cabins for Thanksgiving this year for a family reunion (with Jesse's mothers family). It will be the first year that I won't be spending it with my family (other than my mission) and it will be different, but I'm also excited to meet Jesse's extended family. He already warned me (highlighted at the top) about a certain gravy not to eat...



I promise I haven't forgotten about honeymoon pictures! (Not sure anyone really cares about them but anyway...) We don't have internet access at our apartment so when I blog, it's from work and I don't have the pictures on the computer at work. Hopefully in the next few! days I will post them as well as some more wedding pictures.

19

Me: "Guess what?"*
Jesse: "What?"
Me: "We've been married for two weeks!"
Jesse: "Oh, no, it feels like a year!" :)

ha, that husband of mine. I sure love him!

This conversation took place on Saturday, so today we've been married for 19 days! This means I'm a marriage expert, right? Right? Not really- I have a far way to go, but during the past 19 days I've learned a few things and felt like I wanted to share:

1. Your wedding day is exuasting! If possible try to go to sleep early (or at least at a reasonable hour) the night before your wedding or take a nap in between your wedding and reception if you have time (we didn't because our reception was from 2-4pm). You will need the rest for your wedding day. Jesse and I went to bed late, up with last minute preparations and then had to be at the temple at 9:30am for pictures. We were tired by the time our reception was over. Thankfully our reception ended at 4pm, but my family was there cleaning up until much later- thank you to them!

2. Make sure to take a week for your honeymoon, if possible. It gives you time to spend just with each other before jumping back into real life.

3. From the start, make couple prayer and scripture study a habit. It will help you to grow closer together not only as a couple, but also with Hevenly Father. I love praying and reading scriptures with Jesse.

3.5. Pray for each other and for your marriage in companionship prayer- it brings unity.

4. Be patient with each other and yourselves in the first few weeks of marriage. It's a little bit of an adjustment to be married, but remember to put each other first and find ways to serve each other.

5. Be open with your feelings regarding intimacy. As LDS people I sometimes feel that the subject is taboo, but it needs to be discussed. (Is that TMI? Anyway...)

6. Focus your wedding day on the temple- really that is the most important part. Commit to return often together.

7. Create an album of your photos. We made one for our honeymoon photos (I don't have the wedding CD yet) and have looked through it multiple times already. It's wonderful to re-live the day(s).

8. I love being married. It is wonderful being married to your best friend, knowing that together you are in the process of building an eternal family and knowing that whatever comes you have each other and Heavenly Father to rely on. I believe it was President Snow that said: "Marriage is a wonderful institution. I highly recommend it." I wholeheartedly agree!

We have a cross stitch that we bought in Italy similar to the one below hanging in our living room. Yes, it might make it look like we're Catholic, but I love Jesse's comment about it. "I really like this because it represents not only Joseph and Mary and Christ, but it can represent our holy family as well."



*(we started playing the "guess what?" game on our honeymoon. We would ask each other "guess what?" and then answer with something like "we're on our way to Rome!" or "the Pope is right in front of us" or "we're almost to the beautiful Sistine Chapel!").