Nursery Ideas

I can't wait until Thursday when we find out the gender of the baby.  I'm so excited to start decorating the nursery!! I mostly have ideas for a girl's nursery.  I'm thinking lots of neutrals with an accent of dusty pink.  This is wear I got the idea (thank you pinterest). The white chair and dusty pink pillow are what caught my eye and what got me thinking.

We need a lot of whites so that room really brightens up. I want it to be a happy place to be. Because there are going to be a lot of neutrals I really want to focus on the textures in the room to give it character.

For a boy's room basically all that I have thought so far is a lot of neutrals maybe having a rusty orange as an accent color and owls (even though those are so over done now a days).

We'll see... wish us luck!

I bought out first baby clothes! How freaking cute is this little boy outfit? Either way, we'll be thrilled!

The Lady Bear Lodge

One of the last weekends in February we decided to go on a little trip with our friends Bre & Brian Woods and Brett & Hope Ovard.  It was the college spring break (but I guess since that only applied to Brett, it was just an excuse for the rest of us to get out).  We looked for places to stay for a few weeks before the break.  St. George was booked solid because of a baseball tournament.  Vegas was pretty much booked out because of Nascar.  Everywhere in Park City, Heber, and Midway were booked, probably because it was still ski season and spring break.  Anyway, we were desperate to find a place to stay that would accomodate the three couples.  Brett finally found a Bed & Breakfast on KSL that was open for that weekend.  The Lady Bear Lodge. 

The pictures looked...interesting.  Everything was decorated a little random.  There were not pictures of the bedrooms but there were a lot other really random pictures.  The last picture that she emailed us was a picture of 3 ladies in a hot tub.  Two of the ladies were younger, in their late 20's. The last lady was probably in her late 50's and don't worry, she most definately did not have a swim suit on.  In the picture, the water was just barely covering her lady parts and there was absolutely no discussion on whether or not she had anything on.  But... We decided to go.

We were in desperate need of a small vacation.  We thought that it definately could turn into an interesting one, that's for sure.  Who knows, they could be a bunch of skinny-dippin lesbians at the Lady Bear Lodge who were going to cook us breakfast in their birthday suit. Oh well, might as well go.

Once we pulled up to the cabin three dogs greeted us with their howlings.  One was 130+ lbs, the other one was a medium sized dog, and the last a small dog.  I barely noticed the dogs over our host, Cindy.  She rushed out to great us and had all of our names memorized.  I don't any one has ever acted so excited to see people in their lives. "KRIIISSSSSSTTTAAA!", "COOODDDY!", etc.  She most defintaely wanted to hug us, but we resisted.  She helped us carry up our bags and then gave us the tour. 

She and her husband were both quite tipsy at this point, and very excentric.  Her husband had an interesting way of speaking where he carried on his words forever.  He kept saying how his dogs were "Sooooooooooo Beauuuuuuutifuuuullll." I thought he was joking. 

The house was pretty nice, but the interesting part was that we thought we'd have a separate living space.  The upstairs was ours with a loft (that poor Bre and Brian slept in, I felt bad), and it opened up to their living room/kitchen downstairs so we could hear/see each other the whole time.  She showed us the notorious hot tub.  She kept mentioning that we needed to shower before entering the hot tub to make sure that we aren't bringing in anything to contaminate the water.  She said we need to pull our hair up-but don't worry, she has scrunchies.  She also mentioned 5+ times how if we're comfortable, it was ok to go in the hot tub without a swim suit on because the dyes ruin the water and subsequently the hot tub.  WHHHHAAAAATTT??!! So it was not a mistake, that's what they do here!

We quickly tried to move on and see the rest of the cabin.  It was a really nice cabin, but the decorations were so... interesting.  It looked as if she had gone to the DI and wiped everything off their shelves and put it all over her house.  One morning I got the guts up to ask Cindy where she got all of her decorations.  Sure enough, thrift stores, for free on the side of the road, and don't worry- dumpster diving! 

She fed us breakfast in the mornings.  It was suprisingly quite good.  She was a very clean person for how strange she was.  They are "all organic" type of people.  She cooked some amazing sourdough french bread the first morning.  I couldn't help but stare, because she didn't wear the bra the whole time we were there and it was a little distracting while she was making our breakfast.  Later that morning we were getting ready for the day to go out to Park City and go shopping.  Cody was in the loft and happened to look over to the living room and out the huge windows to the deck where the hot tub was.  Where our host Cindy was skinny dipping! Awkward. Let's just say that we got out of there quickly.

What a weekend.  We stayed up late and played games... well, I didn't stay up too late but they did.  Let's just say I HATE MONOPOLY and I will never, ever, play it again.  But other than that it was a great weekend that we spent mostly in Park City shopping and eating yummy food :)

If you ever want to go to The Lady Bear Lodge hit me up for the information :)

Miracles

I have been wanting to blog for quite some time.  Of course, whenever I get the itch to blog there is always something in my way.  We haven't had a computer for a couple of weeks now but finally we have one and hopefully this word salad that's in my head will finally be able to come out into normal sentences and thoughts.  So... bare with me.

I wanted to talk about my pregnancy! I'm sure that most of you know the news because we announced it on facebook.  I wanted to share the story to those of you who care.  As most of you know I had been struggling with trying to get pregnant.  I wrote a post about it if you want to go back and read it.  I had been very down about the whole situation.  I went in to my OBGYN for my first infertility appointment.  We discussed a bunch of options and possibilities. I had been taking the ovulation tests for a few months to see if I was even ovulating and when.  My cycle had always been very irregular and ever since I stopped birth control it went back to being irregular.  The few months that I did the ovulation tests it seemed that only one month I even ovulated and it was at a completely random time, not where I should have ovulated.  Our plan of action would be to wait until I started my period the next time and then do blood work on certain days of my cycle to see if we could narrow down the possibilities of why I wasn't getting pregnant.

We waited... and waited.  It seemed that my period couldn't come soon enough because I was so anxious to get the testing done and hopefully some answers.  I was frustrated, I know that my period was irregular but really why couldn't it just come on time this month.  Finally I got to the point where I was over a week late and decided ok, to just take a pregnancy test.  I knew that it would be negative, just like every other time that I had tested.  I didn't want to be let down again but I just had to know.  (I had actually taken a test about a week before this and it was negative, which is another reason why I was sure that I wasn't pregnant). 

The morning of January 25th, I decided that I couldn't wait any longer so I took a test.  It was 5:00 am and I was getting ready for work.  I was utterly in shock and disbelief when I saw the results.  Positive.  It couldn't be, how was this even possible?  I tested for 20 days the previous month (a month which I had a period) and I did not ovulate.  So I took another, another definite positive.  I couldn't believe it.  I ran in and woke up Cody waving the sticks in his face and said "We're having a baby!".  Still sleepy, he smiled and asked if I was sure.  He read them himself and couldn't wipe the smile off his face.  We were going to be parents. 

I went in for my 8 week appointment and they said that everything looked good.  They told me that I was due September 25th. I had been having really severe cramps so I called my Dr.  They said that I was probably under a lot of stress and I needed to take it easy.  I decided to quite the bachelor's of nursing program and focus on my new job and on starting a family (because really, that was the most important thing). I had been seeing these advertisement for the NuMom2Be study that they were doing at Utah Valley Hospital so I called for more information.  They follow new moms throughout their pregnancy and the birth of the baby.  There and no interventions and consequently, no risks.  The great thing about the study is that I get 3 free ultrasounds including a 3D ultrasound and I get to find out the sex of the baby a little early.  I go in for 3 appointments and answer a lot of questions and do a lot of lab work.  I get compensated a little, but mainly I just wanted the ultrasounds because normally my doctor only does one at 20 weeks.  We got to see the baby for the first time on March 1st.  I was only about 11 weeks pregnant but it was amazing to see that little baby inside of me.  It definitely made things more real.  You could see the little heart valves opening and closing and the baby even had the hiccups!  It was good for both Cody and I to see the baby for reassurance that everything was looking good. We were almost scared to get too excited in case something goes wrong (that is still a fear we both have).

Things are going well with my pregnancy.  I am now 15 weeks and in just over 2 weeks we are finding out the sex of the baby!! I have been feeling pretty well lately, except migraines that I get quite frequently.  I can't complain though, because honestly what a blessing this is. 

Within one weeks time I felt more blessings than I ever had in my life.  I was going through some trials in my life that I didn't know how I wouldn't overcome them until suddenly everything turned around.  My little sister, Ali, had become ill with RSV and pneumonia and eventually an ileus.  She ended up in the hospital and was not doing well. A couple of nights after she was admitted, I went to see her.  I had never been so scared in my life,  I don't think I will ever get that image out of my head.  My once glowing, smiling, laughing little sister was now  skin and bones, pasty white, and sweating from all pores in her body.  She was shaking as if having a constant seizure and would not make eye contact. She would whimper and cry but was not consolable.  It was if she was a completely different person.  I don't think I've even seen my parents so scared before.  There little girl was in a state that was out of their control, they could not do anything to help her.  It was a difficult week for her, for my parents, for my family.  Everyone prayed.  She received blessings. Because of every one's faith and because of the Grace of God she got better.  It was not her time to leave yet. 

That same week I found out I was pregnant.

Within a week's time I had successfully taken and passed my Nursing Boards and was officially a RN.  What I had worked so hard for, for so many years.  I was sure that I would not pass because of how difficult of a test it was and because of the stress that I had been over.  By the Grace of God, once again, he helped me after I put in all the effort that I could and I passed.

Three life changing miracles that happened, within a matter of a week.  Coincidence, I think not.  I was struggling in so many different aspects of my life and did not feel that I could overcome any of these trials.  However, God knew,  He had a plan for me.  He did not forget me.  He came when He knew that I needed Him.  He blessed me in ways that will change my life forever.  I am eternally grateful.