Happiness is...

Wishing You All A Very Merry Christmas!

We'll get caught up after the crazy busy dies down a bit. Hope your hearts are warmed by the season and that you are happy!

Happiness is...

Being Married to This GUY (the one of the far right)!!!

I stole this photo, I hope my sister-in-law doesn't mind. I picked this one because I get absolutely ga-ga looking at Aaron in this one. Just love that dimple! I find him so attractive! (yes I'm blushing) He's so much more than just the cute guy I live with. He is a wonderful person and I enjoy his friendship very much! No wonder I'm still completely head over heels for him.

If you feel inclined leave a shout out in the comments for the love of your life!!! 2 of you better be leaving some love for those other keepers in this photo. If on the other hand you feel inclined to comment on how you find my husband attractive as well, feel free to keep that to yourself. ;)

Hope you all enjoy the last weekend before Christmas!

Keeping It Real

I'm getting tired of reading, "I saw something on someone's blog that made me feel like I'm not doing good enough." Or while talking with friends, women I admire and love, I find that they're beating themselves up for not meeting someone else's apparent level and I get frustrated. It's a girl thing, I think. I think, we all have good intentions but often project our expectations of ourselves so strongly others pick up on that. Honestly, I do it too both sides of it. To make it worse I expect perfection of myself, create lists so long no one could get them done and then I think mean things about myself because I wasn't successful. What can I say? I'm working on it :) I know it's messed up.

About a year ago I started on a journey to learn about myself and look at myself a new. I've learned to let go and now strive to live my life for me and my own family. Something I'd neglected and forgotten. I wrote in my journal, "I want to stop holding myself back from greater happiness." I can honestly say I've allowed myself more happiness! Interesting thing though, it doesn't come without pain. I rejoice in the journey, trust life's timing and God so much more these days.

In an attempt to keep it real for you and me here's the truth: somedays are awesome, some days... not so much. But my life is deliberate and I choose to live the good with the bad so I can learn and grow. No reason to feel bad about that. Below you'll see my collected evidence of my bad days, to keep myself in balance I'm going to list one thing I'm good at under each picture.

{I am good at overcoming my shyness in hopes of making new friends.}

{I am a hopefully and optimistic person.}

{I'm good at enjoying the small things in life.}

{I enjoy learning and testing out my new knowledge.}

{I am good at teaching young children.}

{I can make very tasty food.}

{Sometimes we eat dinner with the sewing machine. I am creative and try out lots of ways to get that creativity out.}

{I am good at cleaning up after a toddler and daily life.}

However, life happens. I'm not going to stop it and it's not always neat. I am learning how to better keep up, but there are times I've got better things to experience in life than a clean house.

P.S. we don't live like this all the time, just sometimes ;)

You Called It!

We're Having A GIRL!!!

Sorry this is getting posted so late, but we had a marathon day today! I'm just going to write about the whole day since... I want to. :-){I wanted to show you baby girl's little cute nose (since Daddy teased her about her last photo) and her clasped hands. They were like that whenever she didn't want to be messed with.}

Today after waiting an hour and a half past our appointment time the ultrasound tech looked our little baby over from head to toe. I knew more about the markers for down syndrome than the tech did so I was counting things like knuckles, asking about femur lengths, and holding my breath when they looked at her heart. After the tech left in came the genetic counselor, then another doctor to take a closer look... which is enough to worry a mother. However after all their exams they confidently said, "She is healthy!" She doesn't have any markers for down syndrome, but I appreciated their honestly that it doesn't always show up on an ultra sound, as we well know. But, her heart is well and so is she! We move forward with comfort that she's okay. *sigh*

We decided that we'd like to have Porter pick out the baby's first outfit after we found out little brother or sister. As you can see if was a tough decision, one he took very seriously... not. ;)

{Big Brother Porter!}

{Final selections for baby girl! The Green one is newborn size and could be her first outfit, if she isn't early like her brother. I hope she is. The yellow one is 0-3 months but I had to get it because it quickly inspired an entire room decor for her.}

{Love the details ruffles, flowers, frills. To be honest even though I was hoping for a boy I adjusted quickly and loved shopping for these clothes. Aaron suspected it was a girl. But, when we were shopping it was obvious he was hoping for another boy and that he is nervous about having a girl. He just had a dear in the headlights look on his face and kept saying, "I'm sure she'll melt my heart, just like you did, P." Aww!}

You may ask, "Does she have a name?" Well... we've had 2 girl names picked out for years now Zoë & Eva (pronounced "Ava"). Both names were used on Aaron's side of the family in just the last few months. We had decided to go with Zoë since that was the most distant relation, but as we talked over lunch today we're second guessing. Zoë has become a very popular name and we're just not sure. We'll see, it may get the boot. We still love the name Eva but that's a much closer relation and we're not comfortable with 2 cousins only 6 months apart from each other, with no other children between them, having the same name. Her cousin's name is Avalynn and ironically this baby will for sure have the middle name Lynn passed down from my Dad to Me to our First Girl. Crazy, right?! We're still hoping to name a girl Eva but it's too weird to have 2 so close for us. Baby girl #2, perhaps. This means we're back to the drawing board, a place we never expected to be with girl names! At least we're not calling her "it" anymore!

After our exciting news we had an appointment for Porter to have what we were told was a Swallow Study done at the Children's Hospital only a few minutes from the hospital where I had my ultrasound. Because my ultrasound appointment had been tardy, Aaron didn't have time to go back to work before this appointment with P. We checked in and waited, hoping it wouldn't be as long as the first hospital, 15 minutes later they called Porter back! Wahoo! To our chagrin, we were immediately told the order had been written incorrectly. Porter didn't need a swallow study completed he needed an upper GI study completed. UGH! The doctor's office was at lunch but we decided to wait since we were already there. When they got back from lunch, P's doctor was out of the office. His medical assistants (whom I love), tracked him down and 3 hours later they were finally able to do the study. Porter had to drink a ton of Berium and then they x-rayed a lot to see how his stomach filled up and digested. Porter did awesome until he reached his full level and they wanted him to drink more. I was impressed that he managed drinking with his legs bandaged together, his arms held over his head, and being rolled side to side on an exam table. I felt so bad for him when he had finally had it. I stood behind a wall with a window since sister shouldn't be exposed to radiation. As they watched, the doctors confirmed that Porter has severe acid reflux, but we already knew that. They found that his tummy doesn't empty very quickly which allows the reflux to persist. We have to wait to hear from his pediatrician before we can make a plan.

Because this appointment went over there was no point in going home before we were to meet up with my parents at Temple Square to show Porter the lights. We try to do one activity a month for Family Home Evening and this was it for December. My parents were so excited to come. Since we hadn't been able to go home we had to make due with what we had on hand when we left the house at 8:30am. So we layered P with his emergency clothes, along with his outfit for the day. My Mom had a beanie that took 3 people to get on Porter...hehe. And I wore our road side emergency blanket as a coat. Since it was 50 degrees tonight and not windy it was perfect!

{Dad, Grandpa Gregg, & Grandma Nec (behind P) trying to bundle Porter up.}

{They love their Grandkids and they love P! Porter was more than happy to cuddle in with Grandpa.}

{Porter was sooo tired but his eyes showed how excited he was to see the lights.}

{Porter's new "Woah's" and "Ooos" delight us and there were many tonight. As a side note, Porter said his first "I love you" this morning, pronounced "Vuv Woo"!}

{Rare photo of all 3 of us.}

{Amazing, love visiting Temple Square to see the lights!}

{Christmas Luminaries}

{My beautiful Mother with her exhausted grandson. You know he's tired when he stops closing his mouth. I love how these 2 love each other!}

We were headed to dessert with my parents when Porter fell fast, fast asleep in the car. We cut the night short to bring him home. Coming home after spending 12 hours in the city just reminded me there is no place I feel more comfortable than in my own home. I breathe easy when I'm home.

There's our exciting and long, long day.

We think it's funny that on one side of the family Porter is the only Grandson and that on the other our girl will be the only Granddaughter. Funny how that happens.

P.S. I'm tired as well... sorry if this is just a bunch of rambling. It seemed important to get down before I go to sleep. Goodnight!

Happiness is...

FINALLY getting to see the new Harry Potter movie!

I'll be headed out the door here shortly to meet up with my most beloved sister and am crossing my fingers my best friend can find a sitter! I'm so excited I've got the nervous butterfly feeling in my tummy! Have to thank the husband for letting me out for the night, what a man!

Halfway

Tonight while I was cleaning up the kitchen I realized we're halfway through this pregnancy, crazy! It's going by quickly. In less than a week we'll know what to refer to this little one as besides sibling. I asked Aaron to take my picture to document the day.

We love you baby!

Happiness is... (I owe you one)

You get a small list this week:

1. Daddy coming home after being away for training in Maryland. Also of note was Porter kissing the computer monitor thinking it was really Daddy while doing video Skype (cute!)
2. This little moment: I woke up Friday morning with a vigorous list of things that needed to be done and a schedule to get them done in. I started getting ready for the day and started having contractions (annoying) so I just decided to lay down for a second to get them to stop. Porter came over to me and wanted to cuddle so I put him in bed with me. He put his cheek on mine and when he started to leave I said, "No, Again" and he cuddled back into me. He quickly fell asleep in my arms. I panicked... what about the list, the shopping, the cookies that needed baked, what about my schedule?! Then my worried mind was interrupted by this question, "Can you say how many more times Porter will fall asleep in your arms?" my answer was no so I let it all go and soaked up the wonderful moment. It was really the first time I'd seen him sleep peacefully since his dad left town. I love my Porter Boy!
   
3. Counting the comments from my Advent Calendar post, facebook and the reposts of friends over 20 people are using my list this December! All I can say is, Wow! It's not perfect, but I'm grateful that didn't stop me from sharing it.
4. Porter loves his baby cousin Avalynn! He was in awe of her on her blessing day.
5. PrePie, I told ya I had photos. If you don't know what I'm talking about reference here.