♥ My Birth Story: October 9th, 2014.

Countless friends with children have all told me to make sure I write down my birth story while it is still fresh.  October 9th, 2014 was definitely a day I will NEVER forget.

I woke up and got ready for work as per usual, and then headed to my doctor's office for my 38 week check up.  I REALLY wanted to have my baby early because I was just SO ready to be done at work and have a positive change in my environment, and I just couldn't shake the feeling that I would have him sooner than expected.  The previous day we had finally got our stroller, the last thing we needed, and I did lots of laundry, cleaned the house, and got our car fixed.  I even texted my mom that night to let her know that we were completely ready and this baby could come anytime! 

Up until this point, all my doctor appointments had been rather ordinary.  The medical assistant would check my vitals, urine, and weight, which were always normal, and then the doctor would check the baby's heartbeat and measure my uterus and send me on my way.  I was really blessed with a good pregnancy.  I mean, I of course had hard times and dealt with severe sciatica that lasted my second half of pregnancy, but my chiropractor was able to really help me with that, and everything else was pretty manageable.  Overall, I really enjoyed my pregnancy!  Every time I went to the doctor everything looked perfectly normal and healthy, with small exceptions like a urinary tract infection (which I had no idea I even had, no pain or burning or anything) and slightly high blood sugar (though it was still in the normal range).  I feel so blessed that my first pregnancy went so smoothly!

So that morning I went in to my appointment at 8:20 am, and when they checked my blood pressure it was at 144/94 - VERY high for me.  The medical assistant had me lie down on my left side and relax, and my doctor rechecked it when he came in.  It was still very high even after lying down for 15 minutes, so he was pretty concerned that I might have preeclampsia.  He checked my cervix and saw that I was dilated to 1 1/2 cm, and 75% effaced, which was a good sign.  He explained to me that he was going to have me get some blood tests and a fetal non-stress test done at the hospital, and if they were normal he would probably have me be on bed rest for a while (which is basically my worst nightmare), and if there was something to be concerned about they would induce me.  

I headed over to the lab at the Utah Valley Hospital and got my blood tests done, and called my manager at work to let her know that I was either having the baby or being put on bed rest, either way I wouldn't be able to come into work anymore.  I also called Brooks, my mom, and my mother-in-law to fill them in on what was happening.  I got my blood tests, ran home really quick to change and take Sonic out, then went back to the hospital for my fetal non-stress test. 

By this time, my blood test results had come back normal, which was good news.  They hooked me up to a monitor and the entire test took about a half hour while they monitored my baby's heartbeat and my contractions (I started having them regularly once I arrived at the hospital, which my doctor explained could happen after he checked my cervix).  The baby looked great which was a big relief, but my amniotic fluid level was running low.  It was still in the low end of the normal range, but combined with my high blood pressure and the fact that I was already dilated/effaced and having contractions, my doctor decided it was best not to risk it and to go ahead and induce me since my body was clearly getting ready for labor anyways.  

I called Brooks and told him I was going to be admitted and to have him get off work as soon as he could.  Thankfully his manager is really reasonable and let him take off right then.  He stopped by our house, grabbed the packed hospital bags, and then came straight to the hospital.  Cute guy was a bit overwhelmed haha, he was in such a hurry he forgot to change out of his work clothes!  I was admitted at about 12:30 pm, and for an hour or so just laid on the hospital bed answering the nurse's questions and texting family members/coworkers to let them know what was happening.  Brooks' brother was able to take care of Sonic, and both our managers were handling everything at work, so we were feeling really good about the timing of it all.  

My mom and sister came down to be with Brooks and I, and we all settled in for what we thought would be a very long day (the average labor for first time mothers is about 14 hours).  My nurse (who was seriously the cutest, I am so grateful that I had such great nurses!) induced me at 1:30 pm using Cytotec, a pill that was inserted into my cervix (even less pleasant than it sounds) which helps the cervix dilate and get ready for delivery.  After this was done I was allowed to eat one last meal at the hospital, (so naturally I chose a big meal consisting of a burger, sweet potato fries and dessert - haha I was gearing up for the long haul!) and then was hooked up to a monitor that tracked the baby's heartbeat and my contractions.  My contractions really weren't too bad, I was able to talk and relax with relative ease. 

 At around 3:00 pm, my doctor came in and explained that they were going to try something else to induce me to help speed up the process.  He described it as a balloon catheter that he would insert into my cervix with a speculum, which would help me dilate much quicker.  THIS WAS PROBABLY THE LEAST PLEASANT EXPERIENCE OF MY LIFE.  My uterus kept retracting when he was literally inside of me trying this, and they were having issues with the lamp that he was using to see with, so it took much longer than it should have.  It was SO incredibly uncomfortable and I was having some very strong contractions during, so I just closed my eyes and focused on breathing deeply while Brooks stood helplessly to my side trying to comfort me.  Once they finally were able to insert it correctly, my doctor apologized and said I was a champ and handled it MUCH better than most women, which made me feel a bit better haha.  He explained that I would probably need pitocin, a medication that would help my body contract, something they use often when inducing.  He left and my nurse continued to monitor me and my contractions.

(Quick side note about my doctor - before I even got pregnant, I did a LOT of research into finding a really good OB/GYN that I would feel comfortable with delivering my baby.  I read tons of reviews, and when I found my doctor online, I just felt so much peace about it, like he was the right one.  I know it sounds silly, but it was actually a very strong confirmation for me, and for some reason I just felt like I needed an especially good doctor.  He is such a nice guy, and never makes me feel uncomfortable.  He has been practicing for about 30 years so he definitely knows what he's doing, and just always puts me at ease.  This will seem more relevant after I explain my delivery haha)

At this point, I started having VERY strong contractions that were extremely painful.  They were coming in about every 2 minutes and lasting for a minute, and so my nurse grabbed the anesthesiologist to give me an epidural.  He gave me the epidural, and showed me the button I could press that would administer more medicine, but even with that I could still feel my contractions and they were still painful enough that I had to breathe deeply to get through them.  My nurse decided after 20 minutes or so that I needed a stronger dose, so she grabbed the anesthesiologist again and this time he REALLY gave it to me haha, my legs were completely numb!  

It was about 5:00 pm at this point, and I could finally relax.  I had posted a picture on Instagram saying that I was in labor, and so I had everyone and their mother texting me asking how I was doing and what was going on haha.  I was just enjoying myself talking to my family and answering my friends' questions, when my nurse came in looking uneasy.  She said the good news is that I wouldn't need pitocin because my body was going crazy with contractions all on it's own, but that bad news was that since my contractions were coming in SO fast and SO hard, it was putting my baby under stress.  She explained that if his heartbeat didn't improve I would need an emergency C-section.  At this point, my heart sank.  I REALLY didn't want to go that route, especially since C-section recoveries are much harder/longer and often times you can't hold your baby right after delivery, something that I had been looking forward to my entire pregnancy.  The nurse gave me an oxygen mask and told me to breathe deeply so that we could hopefully get the baby to relax.  The nurse left the room and I asked Brooks to give me a priesthood blessing.  He gave me a beautiful blessing, which I of course cried during, and in the blessing he said something that really stood out to me.  He said to trust my doctor/nurses during my delivery.  I felt much better after the blessing, and the baby's heartbeat began to normalize again!  We were all so relieved, and I felt relaxed again thinking I would have a normal delivery.

At around 7:45 pm my friend Cami came to the hospital to take pictures for me (I really wanted to have this special occasion documented) and my dad came and brought me flowers.  We were all laughing and talking, and my dad turned on the BYU football game and was watching it with Brooks.  At around 8:20-8:30ish, I noticed my monitor that was hooked up to the baby's heartbeat was beeping, and looking at the graph I could tell that his heartbeat was dropping... rapidly.  All of the sudden about 5 nurses rushed in the room.  They flipped me over to my other side to see if the heartbeat would go back up, and were messing with all the cords I was attached to.  It was all happening so fast that my dad and Brooks didn't even realize what was happening (typical boys and their sports haha).  When the nurses saw that the heartbeat wasn't improving they turned me onto my hands and knees, told me to breathe deeply into the oxygen mask, and began running down the hall with me.  My mom literally had to push Brooks to tell him to go with me (he was kinda in shock).  

They rushed me to the O.R. and we were met by some additional nurses and a doctor I had never met before.  None of them were explaining anything to me, and were all extremely panicked.  At this point, I was literally shaking uncontrollably.  I'm not exaggerating when I say that it took ALL of my might to focus on breathing deeply and to not cry.  I was on the verge of hysterics, but I knew that if I started crying I wouldn't be able to control my breathing, so I just closed my eyes and focused on breathing and began praying harder than I ever have before.  There was so much running through my mind, so much panic and stress, but I tried to focus on my previous blessing telling me to trust my doctor and nurses and not interrupt them with questions. Meanwhile, in the other room, my family all held hands and began praying.  My mom started calling everyone in her family and in Brooks' family telling them they needed to pray NOW and hard.  I am still so overwhelmed by the love and power of prayer that our families showed me, and to this day I still get emotional whenever I am reminded that my grandma was literally on her knees pleading with the Lord that my baby and I would be okay.

 They lied me on my back and this other doctor started prepping for an emergency C-section, when my regular doctor saved the day by coming into the room and stopping him.  He took a chance and checked my cervix one more time, and saw that I was suddenly dilated to a 10, and that my baby's heartbeat was miraculously beginning to improve.  He made a quick decision to go ahead with a vaginal delivery with the help of forceps.  The nurse had Brooks stand right next to me, and I just concentrated on my doctor and did exactly what he told me to do.  I was still shaking uncontrollably at this point, something that I was later told was probably a combination of my adrenaline, epidural and stress.  The doctor was working faster than you could even believe, and when there wasn't a scalpel nearby he literally had to grab a pair of scissors and give me an emergency episiotomy.  As soon as he was finished he grabbed the forceps and told me to start pushing. I pushed a whopping 6 times, having to stop a couple of times so he could use the forceps, and then during my final push at 8:59 pm a nurse yelled out "Look at all that blonde hair!!" as the doctor pulled him out, and I immediately broke down and started bawling.  My doctor immediately began stitching me up, while Brooks followed the nurse in the other room and I watched through the glass as they cleaned up my perfect baby. After a minute or two Brooks came in holding him, and even through his mask I could tell he was smiling so big. (Brooks had to wear a surgical mask and gown in order to be in the room with me) He placed him on my chest, and I just laid there crying, SO happy that he was here safe. Throughout my pregnancy I was so timid about the name Daxton, but as soon as I saw him it just fit him and I knew that was his name.

After holding him in the O.R. with Brooks for a few minutes while my doctor finished stitching me up and explaining that his heartbeat had dropped because my placenta had detached prematurely, (and also informing me that I had a third degree laceration from the delivery...it's about as awful as it sounds), the nurses wheeled us back to the delivery room to see my family. As soon as I saw my mom I started crying again (haha I was clearly traumatized) and they all took turns holding him and admiring him. 

The hospital was so great, and it was so much fun to have so many nurses, doctors, and even the cleaning crew peek in and take a look at the blonde baby that everyone was talking about! Dax is perfectly healthy and these last two weeks have been blissful, (minus the recovery, which I will save for another post later) and I can honestly say I've never felt so happy and content with my life. It's like nothing else has mattered up until this point. I truly feel like I was supposed to be a mom, and I couldn't love my boy more.  Breastfeeding has become my favorite thing in the world, and I just stare and cuddle him all day long.  I have never felt so much gratitude in my entire life, and am just so incredibly grateful that he arrived here safely and healthy.  I am SO grateful for everyone who prayed for us and made this little miracle possible, and I'm so thankful that I was able to deliver him naturally without having to go through surgery. 

I love being a mom so so much!  Can't wait to spend the rest of my life taking care of this boy.

Xoxo

♥ 21 Week Bumpdate.

Gosh I've been so bad lately at posting.

I promise once I have the cutest baby boy I will post up a storm all the time!

Yes, you read that correctly, we're having a BOY!!

We literally could not be happier.

For as long as I can remember I have always wanted a boy as a firstborn.  I'm probably biased since I grew up with two older brothers, but I think it's the greatest thing.  I have LOVED having my older brothers as my protectors, especially my oldest brother Jeff.  He has always been so protective of me.

For example:

When I was just seventeen, I started dating Brooks seriously, so naturally Jeff was concerned.  He looked at his mutual Facebook friends with Brooks, and interviewed an old mission companion, roommate, and high school friend.  After being satisfied with glowing reviews for my then boyfriend, he called me and gave me his "blessing."

Now, some people might think that he went a tad bit overboard, but it's without a doubt one of the sweetest things anyone has ever done for me, and I love him for it!

Brooks has also always wanted a boy first, probably for the same reason as I do (he's the oldest child in his family), which is mainly that he has loved the family dynamic it has created.  I've always felt like having boys first creates tougher girls (being beat up by boys does that to you) and sweeter boys (taking care of their younger sisters).  Basically, I could not be happier.

K back to my story.

Naturally we tried every trick in the book to ensure that we would have the boy.  (Chinese gender calendar, timing our ovulation cycle, you name it.)

However...

Due to several random coincidences including our doctor telling us the heartbeat was consistent with being a girl TWICE, every supposed trick/craving/fact pointing to "pink" (including the ring game), and literally every friend and family member "feeling" like it was a girl, we became convinced we were having a baby girl!  So, I wrapped my head around the idea for the first time, and of course, was super thrilled with having a girl, even though it wasn't what I had always pictured.  I thought this way for about 10 whole weeks, so you can imagine my shock when I opened the box during our gender reveal to see that we were having a BOY.  

I know it sounds silly, but I swear Heavenly Father and my baby were scheming up there and knowing my love for surprises decided to trick me so that I could be surprised!  

I know, I'm such a dork.  It's the hormones.

We have now known our baby's gender for a month, and have kept VERY busy in that short amount of time.  

On Memorial Day weekend, we traded in Brooks' Mazda for my very own "mommymobile," a Volkswagon Touareg!!  We got it for a great price and it's in such great condition, I'm completely obsessed!

We have also spent a lot of time (and some money...) decorating the nursery!  It's definitely still a work in progress, but in the last week we've managed to paint the nursery, paint the furniture, buy a rocker (we already had a gender neutral crib that we got around 6 weeks..), put up shelves, and hung curtains! I'm pretty proud of what we've accomplished, and I'm super excited to get all of the big stuff out of the way in the nursery so that we can start decorating it with cute small stuff   :) 

(don't mind the random trinkets we put on the shelves, we don't have any baby books yet! ^^)

Nesting is real I tell ya.

I've also been busy registering online at Amazon.com for my "online baby shower" that I'll be hosting for all my friends and family in CA, AZ, and everywhere else in the country!  It is seriously the coolest thing how you can add stuff from any website and put it all into one place!  It's embarrassing how much time I've spent researching all the best strollers, swings, bottles, etc. while also researching what is best for my wallet, but hey, I'm sure the baby won't mind when he gets extra spoiled :)

So, here's my latest with pregnancy stuff:

1. CRAVINGS:  During the first trimester I completely lost my sweet tooth, which is BIZARRE for me since I've always loved sweets, especially chocolate.  Instead I loved anything sour/bitter such as blackberry Izze drinks, balsamic vinegar with bread, and lemon juice...as in drinking it straight from the bottle.  I know, sooooo weird.  Now, however, basically everything in the world sounds good to me and I like eating everything!  So... that's kinda dangerous.
2. SICKNESS:  None.  Literally nothing makes me nauseous, I'm sooo lucky.  I do have a way better sense of smell for some reason, and lots of things do smell bad to me, but they don't make me sick at all so I'm not complaining!
3. WEIGHT GAIN:  Last I checked at the doctor I gained about 5 whole pounds!!  It's probably closer to six or seven now, since that was two weeks ago, but it's pretty bizarre having my body change so much.  I weigh more than I ever have and am having more difficulty hiding my bump, even in my scrubs.  I bought a pair of maternity jeans at H&M a couple weeks ago and those have seriously saved my life.  Also, I don't fit in any of my regular skirts anymore... so that's cool.
4. MOVEMENT:  YES FINALLY!! This last week I have finally been able to feel his tiny kicks and immediately starting screaming for Brooks when it first happened!  The Ultrasound Technician told me that since my placenta is in the front, it's been blocking/absorbing his kicks which is why it's taken me awhile to notice them!
5. NAME:  We're 99% positive we've found the name, but I feel like I can't fully commit until I see him in person!  
6. PREGNANCY CLICHES:  So pregnancy brain is real.  I've definitely had some spacey moments, but luckily those are dying down!  Also, I'm really not any more emotional than I was before I was pregnant, however, I have gotten a tad bit more "snappy" this trimester as Brooks lovingly calls it, where I'm a bit more aggressive than I mean to be.  So grateful he's so patient with me!  Really though, my moods have been the same for the most part.  I'm just slightly more "sensitive" to things around me, and definitely get frustrated easier... sorry to all my patients who have had a "snappy" response after they yell at me!  Normally I can control myself better!
7. SLEEP: So far nothing different, although I weirdly have had my bladder urgency go down so I don't wake up to pee as often as I did during the first trimester, hopefully that's normal...
8. BEST PREGNANCY MOMENT:  Honestly there have been too many good ones to pick just one favorite.  The announcement to my family is definitely up there though!

Well, there you have it.  Words seriously cannot express how grateful I am right now.  Not only am I having a baby boy in October like I've always hoped for, but as of our latest ultrasound he is perfectly healthy.  I must be doing something right I guess, but man am I thankful.

We are officially counting DOWN instead of up, only 19 more weeks!!  Can't wait!

Baby is so excited, he gave me a thumbs up the entire ultrasound!! Love him already. ^^

XOXO.

♥ We're having a baby.

I can't believe the secret is finally out!!! Brooks and I are going to be PARENTS!!

Ever since getting married, we planned on having our first baby after four years of marriage. (I got married at 18 so I had plenty of time to wait). However, the last year or so we have started to get increasingly more "baby hungry," and have talked about raising kids A LOT.  I still wasn't ready though, so we kept our goal of 2015 for having our first.

  One night in October, Brooks and I went to my parents house for Sunday dinner, when we all started talking about baby names.  This wasn't unusual, because my sister-in-law had recently announced she was pregnant, so the subject was on everyone's mind.  We were all talking and laughing and "calling" the names we wanted so that the other sibling couldn't "steal" them, and then we left for home.  It's about a 40 minute drive, and we were both strangely quiet most of the way home.  All of the sudden, I looked over at Brooks and said "Brooks... I think I want to have a baby."  He looked back at me and said "I do too."  We got home, and started talking seriously about it.  There were lots of tears, smiles, and prayers.  We agreed to go to the temple that week to make sure that it really was the right decision.  Sure enough, we felt SO peaceful/giddy about it.

  Now, I have always wanted my first baby to be born in October, I don't know why, but I just have, so we planned out the "schedule" with my handy dandy pregnancy app and decided to get off of birth control at Christmas, and give ourselves a month of leeway time so that my period would regulate (I'm pretty sure the only boys who read this blog are Brooks and my brother Jeff so don't freak out about me talking about my period, because I have almost no shame as it is), because I don't bleed while I'm on this particular brand of birth control, and you obviously can't get pregnant unless you have a period.  (It's totally a normal side effect of Lo Loestrin by the way, I've talked to my OB about it and it has honestly been the best few years of my life not having to worry about tampons) So, sure enough, I started a "real" period on January 15th, marked it in my pregnancy app as "day 1" of my pregnancy, and waited.  After being four days late for my next scheduled period, I took a pregnancy test that had a beautiful little plus sign instead of a minus sign, ran downstairs and jumped into Brooks' arms hysterically laughing/crying and screaming that I was pregnant!  And yes, I got pregnant THAT fast.  Words can't express how grateful I am that we are both so fertile!!

The next step in my plan was announcing it to our families.  (Like I said, I literally planned out everything in advance) So far, I had only told three of my best friends who I knew could keep it a secret.  For months I had planned to announce it on Brooks' birthday, which meant I had to keep it from our families for three weeks... and it was SO HARD.  I thought I had become a pretty good liar from my rebellious teenage years, but man, it was tough.  Probably the hardest part was hiding how tired I was all the time.  I had no idea that when you got pregnant, from weeks 5 till about 10, you feel like you got hit by a bus EVERY SINGLE DAY.  Thankfully, I'm one of those girls that you probably all hate because I didn't get sick....like at all.  Randomly around week 12 I threw up a couple of times in the mornings, but I started taking my prenatals at night instead of the morning (the iron in prenatal vitamins can make you nauseous) and now I'm fine!  Blessed I tell ya. 

Anyways, so I entrusted my friends and their husbands to help me with the "Utah" surprise for my family.  My dear friend/cousin Kristen helped me craft some cute cake toppers that read "Happy Bday Daddy," and the morning of his birthday I made a funfetti cake, because that's obviously the best kind.  I had previously invited my family over for a "birthday party social," and I had my four helpers all came over beforehand to "rehearse."  Kristen would come back in the laundry room/bathroom area where I had hid the cake, and then follow me out with a video camera, and the other three were all standing at different spots in the room taking pictures/videos.  If you know me, you know I LOVE surprises more than just about anything, and I especially love them documented. (shout out to Brooks who knew this about me and made sure to get pictures and a video of our proposal!) 

 The surprise went PERFECTLY.  I had literally dreamed about it for months, and had butterflies in my stomach for weeks.  We came out singing happy birthday (I had everyone gather in the family room so that I could go get Brooks' "present") and sure enough, after two lines of Happy Birthday or so they realized what the cake topper said and all started screaming/crying.  It couldn't have gone more perfectly, and I'll always cherish it as one of my favorite memories!!

^^^I obviously inherited my crying factor from my dad... we're both the biggest babies

^^^My mom and sister's faces when I told them I was already 7 1/2 weeks^^^

Seriously the best.

Next came the "Arizona" surprise.  My father-in-law's birthday is just one day after Brooks' birthday, so we ordered a T-shirt online that read "World's Best Grandpa," mailed it to AZ and told him that we had sent him a hilarious birthday package, and that we wanted to facetime him when he opened it so that we could see his reaction.  I was pretty worried that he might get suspicious, but thankfully we've done this in the past for his birthday so he didn't think anything of it.  (our families were also aware that we had been planning on waiting at least another year, which is the main reason why they were all so shocked) Well, we couldn't wait until his actual birthday, so after surprising my family we went upstairs and called him on facetime.  The family all gathered around as he opened it, and they reacted pretty similar to my family with tears, laughter, and lots of congrats.  It was SO fun and we literally could not stop smiling all night!  

After telling our families, we still had several weeks to keep it a secret before going "public." I know a few girls personally who have had miscarriages, and not wanting to go through the public humiliation of saying "we've lost our baby," I decided to wait until 13 weeks (well, 13 1/2 to be exact) to announce it, because the rate of miscarriage goes waaaaayy down once you hit the second trimester.  Besides, Easter is a perfect occasion to make an "eggciting" announcement. (I love puns, can you tell?)

Two days before Easter, my friend Cami (the first person I told and she deserves a HUGE shout out because she helped SO much with all the surprises!) took some pictures of us close to our house with our decorated Easter eggs, and despite all the disasters that day with everything going wrong from the eggs to my hair (I guess pregnancy changes your hair a lot? Mine seems to be growing very fast, thick, and is very frizzy), we still got some cute pictures to announce with! 

^^^ even Sonic decided to get in on the action - very last minute before church, so excuse the sign

Everything went so perfectly and exactly how I pictured it.  Being pregnant is still so surreal to me, and since I haven't started showing yet I still just can't believe it.  I keep waiting for my "freak out" moment but it hasn't come.  I just feel so right about all of it, and know that it is all meant to be.  We really could not be more excited and feel more blessed than we do right now.  It's without a doubt the most fun time in our marriage so far!  Thank you so much for all of your support, it means the world!  Countdown till October beings NOW.

Xoxo

♥ Twenty Fourteen.

I'm baaaaack!

Sorry guys, but ever since I deleted my Facebook and Twitter I never have a reason to pull out my laptop, soooo I slack.

Anyways, I'm over it, and will be better.. maybe.

2013.  Seriously the best year.

(every year feels better than the last, funny how marriage can do that)

Some of the best things in my life right now:

Work.  I am at the best job right now.  I seriously look forward to it every day.  I absolutely love the people I work with, the patients I meet, and the knowledge I learn from experience.  I love being able to meet new people every day and to be SO busy for 9 straight hours.  It's seriously the best.  Free food every day doesn't hurt either...

Brooks.  He's the best.  I can't tell you how fun it is to come home to someone that you can just laugh and goof off with.  For Christmas Eve, we wrote a rap about my family and all our Christmas traditions, and we just died laughing the whole time while writing it, and stayed up till 2 am perfecting it.  He's my best friend, but still can be sweet and romantic.  Last night, for example, he surprised me with some marinated steaks, potatoes, and asparagus.  Wanna know something pathetic?  He cooks better than me.  Oh well, at least I make good cookies.  

Sonic.  Our child.  I have totally become a "little dog" person, and I have no shame about it whatsoever.  Today, he accompanied me to get my eyelashes done (my favorite way to treat myself.  Not having to wear mascara? Yes please.)  by sitting on my lap the entire way.  So yeah, when you see those crazy ladies with their dogs on their laps while driving.. that's me. 

We had a blast bringing in the new year with my entire family.  We played Celebrity, Harry Potter Clue, and card games for hours on end, and I wouldn't have it any other way.  We all LOVE games and are very competitive, so it always makes it fun.  We also had a fun photo shoot with my sister in law Emily, who turned out to be amazing at taking pictures!  We may be using her a lot in the future.

Here's a few pics from our wonderful vacation.

Aren't my nieces to die for?  Eva's pose just kills me.

Gratitude:

I'm grateful for my family, and for how well we all get along.

I'm grateful for my health.

I'm grateful for my George Foreman grill, and the delicious grilled cheeses that come from it.

I'm grateful for my friends.

I'm grateful for my eternal partner.

I'm grateful for peppermint bark, and for Christmas for giving it to me.

I'm grateful for these years Brooks and I have together before we start a family, and all the time we've been able to grow together, and will continue to grow together.


We're so excited for 2014.  We have travel plans, graduations, and lots of goals to accomplish this year together.  I can't even wait.

Xoxo.