Getting Closer...

Since I still haven't found my battery charger, I decided to take a 32 week picture with my phone. But, now I can't figure out how to get it any bigger than this little picture. I hate technology. Actually, it's more like a love/hate relationship. Anyway, here you go...a picture of me and my growing abdomen. We went to the doctor yesterday and apparently our little guy is head down so I guess he's ready to go. :) He's been moving a lot lately with some pretty big kicks and jabs so I think he's getting a little squished in there. I start going to my doctors appointments every two weeks now and then starting the middle of June, I'll be going every week! Less than two months to go!

Sooo...being the dork I am, I've been worried that someone might take offense to my last post. Jon calls me paranoid and I'm sure I'm being dumb but just in case, I just wanted to say that no one who knows me well enough to read this blog has ever made a pregnancy comment that I was annoyed by. I was pretty much just talking about random customers that come in to the store or random ward members, who I'm not close to, that act like I'm just young and naive and have no idea what having a baby entails. Which, I don't, but everyone has to start somewhere. To everyone else, I love comments and advice about being pregnant and motherhood. I need to post another picture on here since my last picture drives me crazy because it's so unflattering, and it's been a month, but I lost our charger for batteries and our camera is dead. Hopefully I'll find it soon.

Also, this probably won't be exciting to anyone else, but I'm excited because Jon finally cut down his hours at Broulims starting this week. So, no more 38+ hours a week while going to school full time. To anyone who's done it out there, I'm impressed, and I'm glad Jon's a hard worker and has been willing to do it for the last 2 years, but it's hard on a person. Particularly when those 38+ hours are all through the night and then you're trying to keep a clear mind all day during school on no sleep. Try it. You won't like it. And I don't know how my husband kept it up for so long. But, enough is enough and he's cut down to 24 hours a week and now I actually get to see him every other night. Ya!

What else would this post be about?

Sooo...everyone has been updating their blog lately and I felt a little left out. Ok, I didn't really feel left out but I just thought I'd share what's been on my mind lately.

Get ready for it.....

Baby!

I haven't updated because nothing new has really happened. Well, nothing exciting and new has happened. Pretty much my mind revolves around how my family is doing and how my baby is doing. I can say that I only have two more months of pregnancy, which is a good thing. Although, when I tell people I'm excited to be done, their automatic response is, "Well, they're more work once they're out! Enjoy the free time now." Or, "You'll wish the baby was back inside once you realize how much work he is!" I'm not annoyed by these responses but I'll be 25 before I have my first baby, for heaven's sake! It's not like I'm starting super young and haven't experienced being independent yet(yes, I know 25 isn't old). I feel ready and excited for a new chapter of my life to start and, call me crazy...and naive, but I can't wait to be sleep deprived. ;) And yes, I know I'll take back that statement once the baby's here and I'm exhausted.

As far as the baby goes, he's growing quite nicely. He weighs over 3 pounds now and likes to kick like crazy. It's nice to know he's doing well inside but sometimes it's painful! After about 20 minutes of straight kicking and squirming, I feel like a punching bag. To you experienced moms out there, I realize the pain/fun is just starting and there's lots more to come. Also, I suspect he has a low tolerance for sugar, like me, because he stops moving after I eat dessert or a piece of candy or anything with sugar in it. People used to tell me to drink pop if the baby hadn't moved for awhile because it would give him a sugar rush. Tried it. Doesn't work. I drank that "pop" for the glucose test, which is pure sugar, and then did an ultrasound right after and the baby was knocked out. The doctor was giving us a free 3D ultrasound and the baby wouldn't even wake up long enough for us to take a decent picture of him! No amount of poking and prodding would get him out of his deep sleep. Anyway, from what we could see of his face(since half of it was buried in my placenta-his favorite pillow) it looks like he'll have chubby cheeks and a big nose. I have no idea where the big nose came from... Really, the baby had no chance with Jon and I as his parents.

For a quick update on my dad: he just had his second round of chemo and is feeling the effects of that. I would say people have a love/hate relationship with chemo. Anyway, they'll get blood results back on Monday and then we'll know if the chemo is still doing it's job fighting the cancer. We just continue to pray for the best!

Life

Here's another pregnancy picture. I took this a few days ago when I was around 28 weeks. This picture isn't very flattering, but what can you do.

Also, I wanted to give a little background/update on things happening with my dad. I'm just going to start a couple months back because I want to give an idea of the whole picture and the miracles we've seen.

My dad was told he had cancer back in February but we thought it was contained and easily treated(well, as easy as cancer can be I guess). He started having treatments and his health started getting worse and worse. Finally, it was soo bad that his doctor told him to go to Dr. Dickson, who's a cancer specialist. He was admitted into the hospital because his calcium levels were crazy high and they needed to get things under control. They did a ton of tests and told us the bladder had had another type of cancer in it as well that is faster acting and more aggressive and that it had spread to his bones and liver. Despite the bad news, the doctor was optimistic that they could get it under control. After that, we just kept get

ting bad news. They realized the cancer is in stage 4, which is uncureable, and by Wednesday night the doctor told us the cancer had spread to his blood and that we had to decide whether we wanted him revived once the blood carried the cancer to his heart-which could happen at any time. He pretty much gave us no hope and we were left to prepare for the worst. Jon and I stayed with my dad that night because we knew it would be a hard night to be alone. And, the thought of leaving my dad was extremely painful because I didn't know how much longer he would be here. I won't go into detail about that night, but I just have to say my dad is a tender, loving man. I can only strive to be as loving and caring

to my kids and spouse, as my mom and dad are to each other and to us kids.

After we had received the news on Wednesday, we immediately started to fast and, of course, pray. We received a ton of support from family and friends and I think his name was put in every temple in the mid-west. On Thursday, the doctor came in again and he was so excited. He said the kidneys had started to stabilize(my dad has a kidney disease and they had been failing up to this point), calcium levels were down(meaning the cancer had been slowed down in the bones), his liver had shrunk from the chemo fighting the cancer, and there was no cancer in his blood. This was honestly a miracle straight from heaven. My mom started crying and gave the doctor a big hug, the doctor started crying and told my dad th

at there was no way he was giving up on him yet. He said he couldn't be more excited how things had started to turn around.

Since then, we have heard of soo many people fasting and praying for my dad. They even held a ward fast this last Sunday. As of this morning, his calcium levels are even lower, the liver is looking better and his kidneys are in better shape than th

ey were before he had cancer. He's not out of the woods yet and there are still a lot of chemo treatments left, which will be a hard road, but we are soo much more optimistic and hopeful now than we were a few days ago.

Through all of this, it's made me really think about what's important in life and why we're here. It makes me sick to think I was obsessing over something as pointless as gaining 5 pounds while pregnant. Who cares? It's normal. Does it really matter if the baby room is a little brighter than I wanted? No. We're not on our own timetable and it's important to make the most of the time we have here. Power from above is stronger than anything we have

on earth and I truly believe in miracles. I don't believe miracles will happen without a huge trial of our faith and without us doing everything we can on earth and I know our wishes are not always Heavenly Father's plan, but I do believe anything can be accomplished with His help. With that said, I am ecstatic that there's hope that my dad will get to see his first grandchild.

This is just a picture of the whole family in the hospital. Karolyn drove all the way from San Diego to be with us.

Lessons

If there's anything I've learned or had reinforced over the past few days, it's that Heavenly Father is aware of everyone, prayer and fasting is powerful, and family is the most important treasure you can have on this earth.

Easter Weekend

Here are some pictures from our Easter weekend. Saturday was spent with Jon's family and Sunday was spent with mine. We spent Saturday doing all of the normal Easter traditions-coloring eggs, egg hunt, and just hanging out and enjoying family.


Kami holding her cute little daughter.

Jon with Afton. He's so good with all the little kids. I'm pretty lucky. :)



Jon and I just being...dumb.


This is what we did on Sunday. We went to part of my parent's ward and then came to the hospital. In case the picture doesn't tell it all, my dad's back in the hospital. I won't go into detail at the moment because I'm not in the mood to get emotional but I'll just say prayers would be appreciated.



We took a break from the hospital to go eat dinner with my cousin and his "friend." I didn't do any Easter baskets or anything but Kami got Abby a little bunny stuffed animal. She loved it and I thought I'd take a picture of her with her new toy.

And the fun begins!

We started the baby room! Last week, Jon had a little break in between semesters so we thought it would be the perfect time to paint our baby room. Due to our week filling up more than planned and certain things taking longer than expected, we haven't quite finished the room but it will still get done! I'll make sure of that. After all of my obsessing, it better get done...and be dang cute. This room was my inspiration:



It's obviously going to turn out a little different than this picture, with different flooring and gray as the accent instead of brown but I think it will still be cute. Here's what we've done so far:

Sanding down the crib that we got for FREE!!

Here's an idea of the room color. It turned out a little brighter than I wanted but I think it will still be cute...I hope. Especially after we put in some more of our neutral darker colors. My dad's going to paint a white tree on the wall as soon as he starts feeling better. Right now the room looks very...tropical.


Painting the crib

This room is me trying to be domestic. I'm actually making the baby quilt, curtains and pillows. Hello, I don't even sew. However, Jon gave me a sewing machine for Christmas since I'd been talking about wanting to learn and I figured this is the perfect time to learn because I can customize everything how I want.

On a side note: I cut my hair. After putting my hair in a ponytail for...two years straight, I just decided to cut it off because even I was getting tired of the ponytail. In case our anniversary picture didn't give a very good idea, this picture shows it a little better:



Or maybe not. Anyway, it's shorter...and I actually try to do it now. :)

2 Years

Yesterday(April 11th), Jon and I celebrated our 2nd year anniversary. We made it 2 years! It's crazy how fast time flies. People say the first few years of marriage are the hardest and if that's true, we're going to have it pretty easy.

This is us two years ago on our honeymoon...




And this is us now. We took this picture right before we went on our date to Carinos and Gnomeo and Juliet. The main difference from then and now is that we've both just expanded a little ;) I'm glad Jon took the leap of faith to propose, even though I wasn't giving much positive reinforcement to the idea, and I'm glad I said yes...eventually. Now I'm excited that we finally get to expand our little family together; with a human baby this time :)

Man's Best Friend

If you don't have a dog, you probably won't really relate to this next post.

Every night, Jon and I "watch" a movie together. I wake him up, we put in a movie, I fall asleep and then he leaves. I hate being left alone in the quiet, dark house so a movie solves the problem...mostly. Tonight the movie of choice: "Marley and Me."




For some reason this is the only movie ever made that can make me cry. Not just tear up, but full on crying. I suppose it's because I've always had an extra soft spot for animals. Which is probably why someone gets on my bad side very quickly if they show intolerance or cruelty to my dogs. Dogs can be a lot of work, but they will always show you unconditional love and I'm glad our son will grow up with these two best friends. :) We love our Max and Abby!

Abby

Max

24 weeks

Woohoo! Another pregnant picture! This was taken a little while ago at 24 weeks. The stomach just keeps growing.





And this is Abby's pregnancy picture. She's pregnant too! I put an exclamation mark on that sentence but I can't say we were exactly excited when we realized she was pregnant again. The male had been fixed but apparently it takes a couple weeks for the surgery to take effect? I don't know. Either way, anyone want a puppy in a couple months!? Please. :)

And this is our first baby supply purchase! No crib, stroller or car seat yet but at least we have a bag to put his diapers in! I love it. :)
Also, this weekend was Conference! Saturday was spent with Jon's family-watching conference and of course, eating food and spending time playing with all the kids! All of his siblings have kids so it's a total contrast to my family which has none. :) Sunday was spent with my family, watching conference and hanging out with my cousin and his friend and of course, eating. Overall, it was a great weekend and it's always great to listen to our leaders. I always think all the talks are great and well thought out but today I was especially touched by Elder Scott and Elder Holland. It's great to know our church is led by such great people. :) I hope everyone else had a great weekend as well!