Viva Las Vegas

Christmas Eve

2012-01-04T22:58:00.000-08:00

Saturday, Christmas Eve was a booked day. We had to be up early to be out of the house by 8:30am. Bright and early at 6:30am, our day started. Thankfully for Oma (Mom), she made a very delicious breakfast. Disneyland breakfast to be exact. Delicious french toast layered with some vanilla sauce and caramel sauce. It's fantastic. YUM.

After breakfast we all scurried on over to the movie theaters in Redondo Beach. We all split up to see different movies, but T and myself, we went to see Mission Impossible 4. T's parents, sister, and sister in-law helped a bunch with Emery in The Muppets. (MI4 was incredible by the way. Completely action-packed, language was clean and thankfully no "naughty" scenes. That was a relief. Oh, and Tom Cruise is an incredible actor by the way. )

Then it was off to Grandmothers house we go. haha Grandma lives right on Redondo beach, so after eating some delicious pizza, we all sat around and chatted while the food digested. (Ha! I rhymed!)

Tylee, T's sister, bought these adorable little beanie's for Emmy and Emmy's younger cousin, Craiger. Aren't they the cutest things ever? She sure has amazing taste! Craiger was happy as can be in his hat. Emmy, on the other hand, was a bit freaked out. She sat on Uncle Trek's lap, scared stiff. Poor little girl ended up tearing up and really freaked out. The hat came off, she was happy.

We walked on down to the beach. It was a gorgeous view. Funny thing about those seagulls right there. Auntie Char and I were playing with Emmy on the sand and giving her some Ritz crackers. She had dropped one, and I decided to leave it and said, "Oh, I'm sure the birds will get that later today". Not even 3 seconds after it had fallen, there came a swarm of those birds! It's like they were stalking us or something!

I just can't get enough of the beach. I love it. So peaceful, fun, and gorgeous. *sigh*

Fun fact of the day: Growing up, I always dreamt about marrying someone from California, specifically Southern California, that way we could go back and visit his family often and be in one of my favorite places on earth.

It didn't take long for the kids (old and young) to be down on the sand playing some ultimate frisbee. Who wouldn't want to shove their own face in the sand that millions of bare toes and feet have been. (And who knows what else!)

That would be Tylee. She loved being tackled to the ground by her older brother Trek. Just like the good ol' days, am I right?? haha Let's get a closer look...

T quickly ran over to Emmy, Auntie Char and I and asked if I would take a picture of him with his little girl. How could I not?

Then it was my time to stand in front of the camera. Family picture!

Some more pictures of the fun time in the sun. More playing, Emmy with Auntie Char (Oma's sister) and Uncle Tuhk (T's brother) playing in the water. It was a happy time.

Emery's older cousin Lorian took over the pushing the stroller duties and Emmy loved every min of it. She laughed, smiled, and chatted the whole walk back.

Then it was time to head back to Oma and Opa's house to prepare for the Christmas eve traditions.

For those who were home, we acted out the nativity scene. It was pretty fun you know. Pretending to be Mary and riding the donkey (Tuhk). haha I had stuffed a blanket under my shirt and little Taya (pictured below) came running up to me and says "Is that baby Craiger under your shirt?! "(She knew her baby brother was going to be Baby Jesus) I smiled and said, "No, it's just a blanket" She replies, "I want to see baby Craiger under your shirt!" As she tries to look up my shirt. Love that little girl!

Here is a link to the video of our Nativity play.

Afterwards, we shared multiple stories including that of how the song Silent Night came to be. Trek shared this. Then the cousins and Trek and Dani sang Silent Night in German and then we all chimed in singing the first verse in English. (Trek and his family were stationed overseas in Germany for 3 years for the Air Force. As well as, Trek served a 2 year mission in Germany back in the day.)

In the middle of sharing stories, we heard bells jingling up in the master bedroom. Cadence, the eldest niece, jumped up and exclaimed, "Santa! He's here!" We all ran upstairs and followed the sound of the bells and there, by the fireplace in the master bedroom were wrapped presents for all of the children. They all opened them up and found pajamas. Santa made his stop, reminding the children that he would soon be by once again.

Then we laid out the treats for Santa and said goodnight to the kids. I'm pretty sure Santa's elves were busy until 1am getting the downstairs all ready. :)

Wait, can we just look at these little cheeks one last time??? You are welcome!

Christmas 2011 Day 1

2012-01-04T22:02:00.000-08:00

Who says the only way to feel the Christmas spirit is by watching the snow fall outside your window while sipping on some hot cocoa?
It wasn't me. In fact, there have been many years in my lifetime where the sun was shining and shorts were acceptable on Christmas day.
As I have mentioned in previous posts, I come from a large family. I am number 5 of 7 children. To this date my parents are proud to have 10 grandchildren. T's family, is as well quite large. He is the baby of the 6 total siblings. His parents are proud grandparents to 6 grandchildren. Needless to say, it's important to us to be able to spend time with both sides of the families during the holidays. In order to make things fair, we switch each other year between families and holidays. For example, this year, we went to Texas to see my entire family over Thanksgiving. T's family had Christmas at his parents house and we were able to celebrate the happy weekend with all 17 of us.

All the siblings arrived at Mom and Dad's house on different days. Each new day brought more and more joy and someone different showed up.
We arrived late Thursday evening. Thankfully, from the nights events, his family had brought us home some Tito's Tacos. I highly recommend this delicious authentic mexican joint (only one ever!). We make sure to eat there at least once every visit. We stayed up late, of course! Chatting and catching each other up on our lives. Friday morning came bright and early. Especially when my mind decided to wake up at 5:45am. WHO DOES THAT?! Especially on vacation?! This girl does apparently. I took advantage of the time (and hot water) to shower, and get myself ready before everyone else woke up. We had a long and exciting day of adventures ahead of us!

After breakfast and when everyone was all dressed and ready to go we headed on down to the mall. What's a Christmas weekend without the mall? With all of the hustle and bustle, lights, decorations (and amazing sales!) who could pass it up? We sure didn't want to miss out!
After a few hours of walking around, picking up last min items, drinking some delicious vanilla-bean frappuccino with caramel syrup, don't forget the whip(!) , it was time to take the little kiddos on the carousel. Emery wasn't too stoked about riding that ferocious looking lion with Opa, so Daddy took her over to a nice quiet bench on the second tier as they went around, and around, and aroooooooooouuuund. You dizzy yet?

Then it was time for Opa, T, Emery and myself to hop in the car for the 2 hour ride to, hold your breath....I mean, where else would we go while in SoCal? Emmy took advantage of the drive and slept the whole way.

Bonus points for those who guessed it!

Daddy decided to put his hat on E's head to keep the sun from blinding her. It was the funniest thing, she just sat there. Didn't move. I think she may have even held her breath! haha It was the cutest thing.

Do those eyes make your heart jump a little, too?

We rode the tram from the parking lot to the entrance and Emmy gazed at all of the scenery. I think she may have remembered her favorite place.

We chose to head to California Adventure first. We weren't wanting to spend a lot of time there, just enough to breathe in the happy feelings, see the Christmas decorations, watch the castle get dressed with snowy-like lights and of course, ride the greatest ride out there. None other than Toy Story Mania!

The gigantic Christmas tree next to Santa's little cottage.

Silly Santa, he was looking at the actual photographer. Emmy was a little scared to say the least.

We knew the line would be rather long at Toy Story Mania, so we stopped and picked up some churros to enjoy. Emmy sure loved having some of it, that is for sure!

This was her face for the day, her wide-open-mouth-in-amazement face.

Trying out the 3D glasses before our turn. Emmy wanted to do it herself.

This was T's first time on this ride, mine and Emmy's second time. He had no idea how to play, I had to teach him as we went. He had checked our score board after the first few mins and was astonished at the fact that I was WAY ahead of him in points. Then he caught on and ended up winning in the end. My poor wrist just couldn't keep up with his.

Then it was off to Disneyland! We caught the Christmas Parade just in time! It was so fun to see all of the Disney characters come running out with their theme songs. Mickey, Minnie, all of the Princesses with their own handsome prince, Toy Story's famous Buzz and Woody, just to name a few. But of course, it ended with the greatest of them all this time of year. Mr. Santa Claus. He followed behind all of his reindeer. Emmy was especially excited to see him. I think perhaps she warmed up to him.

Last, but not least, we finally got to see the castle light up in all of it's glory and spectacularness. I was so happy! There was even fake snow that fell from the streetlights. Unfortunately, the fireworks were cancelled that evening, (I was really looking forward to seeing them!) so we went on to the stores and did a little shopping. Bought a caramel apple, as my tradition goes.

The first day of our Christmas break truly was a joy and a dream come true! Stay tuned for the rest of the trip!

1st Birthday Party

2011-12-12T14:12:00.000-08:00

My, how time flies by like a blink of an eye. I truly felt like this moment was just yesterday. We are now approaching exactly one year to date from that miraculous day. I am grateful every single day for the beautiful blessing my Heavenly Father has given me to have a literal angel as my daughter. Just look at her:

My almost 1 year old. She somehow gets more and more beautiful every time I look at her!

She has been the joy in my life since I first found out I was pregnant with her.Such joy I truly did not know existed until I held her in my arms for the firsttime. Memories like this one are ones to never forget.

Although Emery does not officially turn 1 until December 14th, 2011 -at 6:54pmPST-, we had a little celebration in her honor this past Saturday,December 10th. (Grandpa's birthday!) We are so grateful for those who were ableto come and celebrate with us. Both sides of our family (with exception of oneof T's brother's) live long distance and were unable to come. We felt so muchlove as some of our military ~~friends~~ family joined usthat day.

Whatis a celebration without some yummy treats to enjoy? Exactly. It isn't one. Sowe were sure to share some of our favorite foods. With 7 layer dip, taco meat,and chips to go with it, you can't go wrong there! I was sure to makeeverything pink in honor of my little girly-girl. Delicious chocolate and yellow cake cupcakes with vanilla frosting, peanut butter zebra pink cookies, and homemade Lofthouse Sugar Cookies. Mmmm. Now I'm allhungry.

Withsome pink decorations it definitely put us in the party mood.

Someof my favorite photos of the special girl. She sure had a lot of fun!

She wasso smiley and happy seeing everyone enjoy themselves. She just lovespeople!

In my family we have been doing a Chinese tradition since my first niece turned 1. This Chinese tradition (in my own words) is that on the child's first birthday, you place in a row a few different items of choice (each item representing something that the child could grow up to be). The child is then placed a few feet away from the items and they are to crawl/walk towards one item. Do this 3 times. It's just really fun! So we did this with Emery and I have the first two times but was unable to record the third final round.

The items that we placed and what they represented to us:
1. Scriptures - Spiritually knowledgable
2. Book - Educationally knowledgable
3. Egg - Homemaker
4. Cash- Wealth

First round:

Egg!

Second round:

Egg!

And her final round, she also went right for the egg! Too funny! We will be sure to do it again on her actual birthday.

She loved seeing some of her favorite people!

Sadlywe didn't get to take pictures with all of her favorite people who joined us that day. I'm still kicking myself for that one!

Look at her gorgeous cake! My friend Katie was so helpful and madeit for Emery's party. I truly could not have asked for a more perfectcake!

Thencame the ~~scary~~ exciting part of smashing that cake! Emery wasnot sure how to take the pressure of everyone standing around her watchingintensely with the cameras to see how she would react. Let's just say at first,she was unsure and a little intimidated.

Sheslowly became more and more interested and would place her cute little pointerfinger in the frosting, and would shy away for a moment, then build the courageonce again to place that little finger in there!

We thought to try some utensils. Maybe she didn't want to get all messy?

With little interest on Emery's part, Idecided to give her a taste so she would know just exactly how delicious thisbig beautiful cake was! We were sure she would then dig in.

Haha! Nope! Not a chance.

Daddy decided she needed extraencouragement to get things going.

No way. She obviously did not agree.

But with consistant effort, Daddy was sure to get her to try it!

Alas! She caved in and tried that sweet frosting and realized, "I like it!"!

So she agreed to try some more!

Yes, those cheeks are just as fun to kiss as you would imagine them to be.

And more!

And some more!!

Even Daddy agreed that it was some pretty delicious cake!

Pretty sure he ate more than Emery did.

Emery liked it so much she began to realize it was all worth the mess.

Haha, see Daddy's hand sneaking some more of that cake?!

Emery is such a sweetheart, she even asked if anyone wanted to try some of her cake! That's my girl.

We realized we should have opened the gifts before the cake smashing, but we decided it wasn't so bad. Mommy went upstairs to clean Emery up and Daddy cleaned up the mess (was sure to save the cake for later enjoyment) and set out the wonderfully thought-out gifts from those who love her.

Once again, Emery was unsure of the situation. I mean, she had never really had her own birthday before. I would be a little worried too if the pressure was on me to entertain all of my friends without knowing what the heck was going on.

Once she realized there were some pretty fun things hidden beneath all of that paper, she became a little more excited.

This card that Melle got her has a Peek-A-Boo baby bear that really entertained her!

Molly was sure to help Emery open her gifts. She is a professional you know. She just turned 2 back in October and knew exactly what was going on. She was so helpful and loved seeing the new toys!

Oma (Grandma in German. AKA T's Mom) sent some adorable new clothes for Emery to wear. We can't wait to dress her up!

Emery loves putting things on her head, and was having a ball trying on her new headband from Oma. She also enjoyed the little piano set from Jen and started dancing to "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star".

She was rocking out and Molly thought it would be fun to join in. Obviously, Emery wanted it all for herself and once she realized Molly was taking over, she knew she had to cut in.

So she slowly ~~walked~~ knee-walked on over and cut in front of Molly.

And got her little piano back.

Thank you again for all who came, gave/sent a gift! We are also so grateful for all the loving and wonderful people who have made this past year a wonderful success and given us so many beautiful memories. Emery is so lucky to have such people in her lives.

Honeymoon

2011-08-28T17:07:00.000-07:00

Awwww, the long awaited trip almost every newlywed couple awaits. The Honeymoon! The morning after our wedding I was absolutely exhausted. When people say that weddings take everything out of ya, they weren't kidding. I didn't want the time to arrive to catch our flight. But alas, the time came. So I quickly pinned my bangs back and put a little mascara on and was ready to leave.

Our lovely hotel that we stayed at.

On our flight home to Las Vegas.

When T asked me where I wanted to go on our Honeymoon, it didn't take me long to decide. In fact, I could have picked anywhere in the world. Though I love the beach, deserted beautiful islands, big cities, etc...I did not hesitate one second with the infamous response....

"The Happiest Place On Earth! "DUH! :)

I mean, where else would the happiest couple on earth go?

After flying home on Sunday, we decided to spend the night in our new apartment and see T's parents as they made their drive back to LA.
Monday morning, bright and early we headed out the door and drove on our way to the happy ol' place!

Our hotel room. There awaited for us was a long stem red rose, an autographed photo of Mr. & Mrs. Mickey Mouse, ballons and of course, chocolates on our pillows! They upgraded us to a bigger room and handed us each a big ol' pin that said "Celebrating our honeymoon".

After unloading our things we couldn't wait any longer, so we strolled right on in to the park and rode some of our favorite rides.

We made sure to eat some yummy breakfast the next morning. I love my hot cocoa!

I must be a kid at heart because I was so amazed at the Lego Store! A life-size Giraffe, Darth Vader and other such things made completely out of Legos just blew my mind!

Before heading into the park we decided to do some shopping in the stores at Downtown Disney. We made sure to buy lots of treats, like their Carmel Apples! YUM! We bought some toys for the kiddos (nieces and nephews) and I was able to get a Mickey Sweatshirt. Love it!

Also that night we had made a painting that had our initials and the date with "Disneyland Honeymoon" in the corner. Our initials were created with Disney characters. Mine was made with Tinkerbell and T's was of Jack Sparrow. It turned out so cute!

During our trip we were sure to get a few of the "famous" picture taken in front of the castle. Funny, I swear the castle was a lot bigger back in the day...

We didn't take many other pictures during Disneyland. But here we are over at California Adventure in line for California Soaring. That was an amazing ride! Definitely worth the 3 hour wait.

The perfect ending picture to our trip at the Magical Kingdom.

After a few days at Disneyland we made our way over to T's parents house where we met them, and my parents and we had an open house/reception for those that knew T's family. Afterwards, all of us flew to Austin, Tx for the same reason. I will blog about that soon.

When we arrived back home to Las Vegas we treated ourselves to The Melting Pot.

Just goofing off as always!

Dinner was great, and we would have stayed for dessert but we were stuffed! So we went back a few days later. I mean, those coconut covered marshmallows were just screaming for me to dip them in some hot melted chocolate!

We just made sure to make ourselves homemade ice cream sandwiches!

Our Honeymoon truly was the happiest!

Baby's first photo shoot

2011-06-28T14:28:00.000-07:00

"Hi!"

Let me begin this post by first, telling you that I have amazing friends. Friends that traveled an 8 hour round trip by car so they could spend a day with us the day after E was born. May I add, that my dear friend Ashley, is an amazing photographer, and offered to take pictures of us all on this happy and special occasion. I will forever be grateful for Ashley and her sweet and amazing gift she shared with us. Here you will enjoy many (and when I say many, I mean, A LOT!) of beautiful photos of that very intimate and precious day.

E's identity so the nurses would know who she was and who her parents were! As well as our room number.

E is already a Daddy's girl. Look at the way she snuggles into him!

I love her holding my finger.

Gotta love the hospital gowns!

Daddy getting used to holding her! I'd say he is quite the natural!

A collage of a bunch of photos of E with our great friends Matt and Ashley. (Aren't they beautiful people?!)

"No one else will ever know the strength of the love I have for you...after all, you're the only one who knows what my heart sounds like from the inside."

A few of the men in E's life...

Cutest little feet!

T has been so helpful since the very beginning.

Our little family!

Grammy with E. She came all the way from Texas to be there to help us a few weeks before E was born and stayed with us. Thank goodness for Grandma's!

She not only held us by her little fingers, but also by her toes.

THE greatest joy, finally holding her in my arms and being able to look at every little feature of this beautiful angel.

Some more of the guys. Don't mind T showing us how long his hair had grown since being on leave for a few weeks. He was quite proud of it. lol

Can't you tell she already has Daddy wrapped around her little finger!

A few photos of the little gal by herself.

"Hmm so this is what it feels like to have my legs stretched out..."

"...yeah I like it better with them close up to my body.."

Yours truly! Those who made these photos possible. T and myself for making the cute little girl, E, the starring role and Matt and Ashley who are gorgeous and are the ones who took the perfect pictures!

The day an Angel was born

2011-05-25T18:07:00.000-07:00

This post is a very special one. I hold it very close to my heart. This story, is about the painful journey that led to the most beautiful, magical and memorable moment of my life.

This, is the story of how little Emery came into this world.

December 13th, 2010

5:00pm I remember looking at the time and felt cramping pains. I didn't think much of it because I didn't want to get my hopes up. So I went about my night like nothing different. Every 20 min I'd feel cramping. Was this it? Was I feeling contractions?

11:00pm The contractions grew stronger and stronger, more painful, where I couldn't sleep. I was getting them every 10 min. I still hadn't told my Mom nor T. I just silently went downstairs and laid on the couch trying to sleep in between contractions. I was told that I wouldn't need to go in to the hospital until my contractions were every 3-5min apart for a complete 2 hours. So I was just keeping track of them.

6:00am Tuesday December 14th My contractions grew to every 5mins. Then at 7:00am I was having them ever 2-4 min. I had already showered and told my Mom and T. Then we hopped in the car and called the labor and delivery.

I got up to L&D and checked in. They asked me why I was there. I said, "Um...well, I think I'm having my baby" They asked me when my due date was and I told them it was that day. They were all confused. Apparently babies don't usually come exactly on their due date.

I was told that they would check me. I had to be at a 4 in order to be admitted and be considered "in labor". What the heck?! I had been having extremely painful contractions for hours now. They checked me, I was only at a 2. They told me to put my walking shoes on and to go for an hour walk. T came with me, we were walking around the general area of the hospital. I had to stop every 2 min to breathe through the pain. We made it back up to the room and they checked me, the blessed doctor said I was a 3, small 4. And said she could feel the hair on Emery's head. She then popped my water then said those heavenly words, "Well, you're staying! She's staying." YES!

So, I put on my gown, got all hooked up to all the crazy machines. Was first given my IV with antibiotics (I had tested positive for Strep B, so once my water broke, they had to hook me up with them so it wouldn't hurt E) then with pitocin.

This is the happy me, in between contractions.

Then as the contractions started again, I'd tell T to hurry and be by my side.

Oh, they were so painful! But then of course, I'd have maybe a minute or two of rest. And I'd be happy again. By this point, I started getting so cold! I asked for warm blankets. I think my body was sort of having a panic attack.

Then those blasted contractions would start again. I recall telling T, "Babe, I just can't do this anymore. It's so horrible." I was crying. T cried with me and would tell me over and over again how I was doing so well and that he wished he could take the pain away.

Finally, around 2:00pm (mind you, I got admitted at noon) they said they could start getting the epidural ready. It couldn't come fast enough! Let me tell you, getting a gigantic needle in your back while trying to breathe through contractions every min, is way difficult! The lady that was doing the epidural wasn't very nice. That's my only complaint out of my entire experience at the hospital. She only got it to work on one side! So then I was feeling concentrated pain on my left side. Ugh. It was awful. Finally, the real anesthesiologist came and was able to fix it so it distributed evenly.

My gosh, did that make a difference! Life was grand and heavenly afterwards! They told me to rest up. I was only at a 5cm at that point, so I still had time to rest before pushing. They said they would come check in on me an hour later. That would be 6pm. I tried to rest. Well, I did my best. It felt so nice not to feel the contractions anymore. T left to go get food with his brother and friend. They came back and said hello for a few min.

6:00pm the nurse came in to check me. Believe it or not, I was 10cm dilated and 100% effaced. For those of you that don't know, that means it's time to push. Everything was ready to go. I couldn't believe it. I had progressed that quickly so fast.

The nurse had me do some "practice" pushing with her. I thought that it meant to just push a few times so I would get the hang of it. No, it really meant that I would push until E was in position to be pushed OUT. haha T's brother was in the room experiencing all of this with myself, T and my Mom. T really wanted his brother there to experience this. By the time he asked me if it was okay, I didn't care because I just wanted E out! haha So, Tuhk (T's brother) stayed behind the bed where he couldn't see anything. I, of course, couldn't have a mirror like I wanted because that would make everything viewable to Tuhk. So, the doctor let me reach down and feel Emery's head as it was starting to crown. I was in love. Finally feeling her little flesh made it all so worth it. I was even more determined to push as hard as ever and for however long to get her out.

I'll spare you from any gruesome photos.

As soon as they got her out and T cut the cord, they handed her directly to me. I finally got to hold my baby! My precious little angel who I had thought about for years and years. The one I talked to and felt kick and do flips in my tummy for 9 months. My baby girl. My precious precious girl.

Daddy is so proud.

Here are a few pictures for your viewing pleasure.

7lbs 12oz 20inches long.

She did not like getting those eye drops!

Daddy gets to hold her for the first time!

Proud Uncle Tuhk!

I was in awe just staring at her. She was so happy and calm with me.

After the epidural wore off, I was able to walk to the recovery room. She got to stay the night with us.

T and I took turns holding her while the other slept. I didn't want her to sleep all by herself. I mean, she was so used to being with me for so long. It broke my heart to just have her sleep alone.

After getting her vitals taken. She's so peaceful!

Natural Induction Please?

2011-05-25T12:23:00.001-07:00

While T and I discussed the "perfect" timing when to have a baby be born, we realized that we didn't want our baby born too close before or after Christmas because 2010 Christmas was going to be a big year. It was the first year in 3 years that our entire family (That's including my parents, 6 brothers, myself, 4 sister in-laws, 3 nieces and 6 nephews and of course, my man.) would be together. I didn't want to miss out on the fun!

Well, of course, God really is the one in charge here. E's due date fell on December 14th 2010. Just a week before we were scheduled to take off to Utah for our family extravaganza.

As soon as I was full-term (37 weeks) I was ready to have her. But, nothing felt different. I started googling and searching for ways to "naturally induce" labor. I found the Preggo Pizza, drinking Castor Oil, eating Eggplant Parmigiana from Olive Garden, and many other ways. Actually, a nurse at the labor and delivery told me the best way to get the baby out, is, "the same way you got the baby in there". Sorry if that's too much information. You can read more about other natural ways of inducing labor here.

I even tried running up and down my stairs several times to help move things along. I think every pregnant woman gets to the point of being desperate and will do anything to get that baby out. Mind you, I tried about everything besides the castor oil!

My Mom had come out to visit December 4th to help finish the last things around the house and preparation for Emery. We were so busy getting things together. I'm so grateful she had come out. She kept me calm and reminded me that everything would happen at the right time.

I constantly prayed to God and talked to Emery telling them both how important it was for me to be there for our family's Christmas. I had talked with my doctor and she said that they wouldn't induce me until I was over a week past my due date. That put me at December 21st, the day I was suppose to drive to Utah. I sure felt the pressure of jump starting the labor. I was comfortable and happy. Had I not been on a time crunch, I could have kept Emery in there for another month!

The day before the due date I lost it. I was so emotional, I started crying. I had no idea what to do. Had it been any longer it would have made me not able to go on the family vacation. I cried and cried. I was so upset. So hurt. I felt so helpless. I had no control over it. I did everything I could to get my little angel in the world and none of it was working. T was so sweet and talked with me, calmed me. I felt better. My Mom, T and I went and ate then walked around the outdoor mall.

It was then, that I started cramping.

The Proposal

2011-05-14T12:48:00.000-07:00

How could I forget?!

I move on to the wedding details and forgot to even mention the proposal. How very silly of me.

I knew that the proposal was inevitable. I just didn't know how or when T was going to pop the question. I just told him it had to be before we had our bridals taken.

Then on March 8th, 2009 as my Mom and I were stuffing the invites, T had to work that night so we had planned on hanging out a bit before he had to take off. He told me he had to go on base real quick to get some things and then we'd grab a bite to eat and he'd drop me off at the hotel. We get on base and head to the dorms where T was living, as he turns at a stop sign we see cop lights light up our car. I was so confused.

I say to T: Um, babe. I think a cop is pulling us over.
T: Really? You think that's for us? Hmm...

Me: Uh....yeaaaaah. What did we do wrong?!

Cop comes up to T's door. Tell's T to roll down all the windows in the vehicle and for us both to step out. Oh my gosh, I was so nervous. I've never been asked to step out of the vehicle. The cop goes to his patrol car and back to us to inform us the following.

Cop: Do you know why I'm pulling you over?

T: No.

Cop: You ran that stop sign back there.

Me: No, he didn't. I remember him completely stopping. (Oh man, me and my big mouth!)

Cop: Sir, are you registered to this vehicle?

T: No, I'm not.

Me: It's my car. I'm registered to the vehicle.

Cop: You see, there's a law on base that no one is allowed driving on base in a vehicle they are not registered for.

What the heck?! I'm dying over here. I try explaining I had no idea....T even says he didn't know.

So we wait. The cop had to call his boss. I'm not kidding, 5 cop cars showed up. I was so embarrassed. We were parked right in front of the COP DORMS. So everyone saw us.

Cop's boss shows up and repeats the same. And then says, "The only way you could be okay driving on base in this vehicle is if you two were married." I start interrupting wanting to say, "Wait! We are getting married" And then T interrupted and said, "So you're saying, if we're married, I will be ok to drive?"

Then the cop says, "Well, hey! Get married!" And hands T the ring box. I am in total shock. haha

You can imagine the rest. Luckily, one of the cops that showed up was recording it. Actually, he explained to me during this whole scene that he was recording it for training purposes. haha I fell for it. Yes, I did.

Here is the video. This is actually our wedding video and has pictures of us as kids, then it has the proposal then pictures of our bridals. So, if you want to skip all the pictures, just fast forward to 4:18.

Well, blogger wont let me post it, so you can check it out here.

After the whole flight congratulated us, I come to find out that all the guys are the guys that actually work with T. He had tricked me for days thinking that the flights switched hours and that his flight wouldn't be working for a few more hours. T's flight chief (the boss) told T he could have the rest of the night off. So we called my Mom and brother up, they met us up for dinner as we celebrated and gawked over my ring! The orignal cop that pulled us over is one of T's friends that mysteriously could never "get together" before hand.

T and the flight pulled it off perfectly. I had no idea and was taken away.

Fun little side note:
T's orignal plan to propose was actually have ME get pulled over while T was "at work" for a random car search with K-9's. They would "find" drugs in my possession and put me in jail. Then that is where T would come and "rescue" me and propose while I'm behind bars. haha!

Now to the HAPPY day!

2011-05-03T18:35:00.000-07:00

Though my morning started off bad, T was right. It was all going to be better. (Why it was a bad morning) Thank goodness too! I was so pleased to see everyone we had invited to the Temple show up. It was so beautiful and touching looking around the room being surrounded by all our family and friends.

The Temple Sealing was beautiful. It's an amazing feeling, the bond between husband and wife. And given the promise that if we live righteously and do what Heavenly Father has asked of us, we will be together forever, literally. Wow. I am sure glad I picked someone amazing!

After the sealing, T and I finished getting ready to take pictures. Well, more like, I had to retouch everything from crying during the ceremony! As we were inside, everyone else was waiting outside for us to make our grand entrance! Or, rather, exit! lol

Then we finally made our exit through the doors they anticipated on. It was so fun seeing everyone out there celebrating with us on our beautiful day!
Everyone wanted to see my red heels, so I showed them off. Then my brother's teased T to show his shoes off too.

I love this man so much. I truly am so grateful to be married to him.
How did I get so lucky?

Then we greeted and hugged everyone. It sure felt nice to feel the love.

Then it was time to take pictures! Everyone who was there to celebrate and then just both sides of the immediate families.

It was then T's turn to take pictures with all the bridesmaids. T's brother wanted in on the fun!

Here is the groom and all the groomsmen. T's brother is in the red tie, whereas all but one of my brothers are there too.

Just me with my gorgeous bridesmaids!

We figured it was time to take shots with the kiddos. My niece and nephews. Unfortunately my other niece wasn't there at this time. You'll see some with her in other photos.

Here I am with my brothers (remember one was in Peru!), they wanted to lift me and I started laughing so hard that I...excuse me for TMI, but I swear I almost peed myself! lol We were laughing so hard, as you can tell! We couldn't get a good shot.

T with his gorgeous sisters and his studly brother.

It was then time to take photos with our amazing parents whom we love so very much!

Now starts the photos of just T and myself on the grounds of the SLC, Utah Temple.

Isn't the Temple just breathtaking?

Then it was time to re-freshen up for the luncheon!

Happy day...???

2011-05-03T13:47:00.000-07:00

You would think that every bride wakes up in the morning feeling rather beautiful, refreshed and uber excited for her big day, you would think so.

Here are a few DON'T's on what NOT to do the day/night before the wedding. For, I tell you this, from personal experience.

#1. Do not go tanning at the salon for the same amount of minutes you would had you been going regularly the day before your wedding. This will result to burning and redness all over your body.

#2. Do not use any new product on your entire body without testing it on a smaller part of your body first. This may result in intense pain and rash. Especially after doing #1.

#3. Do not stay up late.

#4. Do not panic

So. Here's my story to explain all of the above.

#1. As I previously mentioned that the day before our wedding us girls went out for a bit that day. Well, one of the things we did was tanning. I hadn't been tanning for about 2 years and thought it would be a great idea to get a little bronze before the big day. Yeah, for some reason I thought my skin could handle 8 min in the highest level of tanning beds, because! that is what I did when I tanned back in the day. BIG mistake.
I was hurting all afternoon into the night. All night to be exact.

#2. You know how you want to have fresh shaven legs for your big day? Well, duh, I did too. See, what I thought would be a great idea is wait until the day before to do one of those hair removals that you rub in this type of lotion that eats at the hair then use a razor-less razor (I don't know any other way to explain it) to wipe the hairs away.
Here's a story you will laugh about for ever. So, some time in the day after tanning, I was in the bathroom applying this cream to both of my legs. Mind you, I had the door closed. So as I'm sitting there suffocating myself due to the fumes, my legs are literally burning feeling like they are on fire. I immediately get a rash up to my knees. Thankfully, I only did half my legs to start. Here I am, ready to pass out and I can't get my legs to stop hurting. So I rush over and open the door to get fresh air.

#3. Of course, with my entire body in agony at this point, how in the world was I suppose to sleep?! I laid there for hours, and I was so anxious because I had my hair appointment early in the morning etc. Let's just say, I didn't get any sleep that night.

#4. Because I was so overly tired and exhausted from the pain, I was pretty panicked in the morning. I couldn't find the slip to my dress, I didn't have time to get my make up done. And when it was time to leave for the Temple, I hop in the back seat of my parents car and start bawling. They question what is wrong. I told them, "I don't want to get married today. Today is a very bad day". My parents asked, "C, are you sure? You don't want to be married? Is something wrong? Do you feel like it's not right?" Boy did I have some explaining to do. As I'm there bawling my eyes out explaining to them my torturous night they do their best to calm me down. Then I cry even harder because we were 5 min from the Temple and my eyes and face were all messed up and I had to put my make up on. *exhale* T tried calling me and I ignored it. Texting him I explain I am bawling and can't speak. Well gosh, that didn't help the poor guy. He asked me if everything was okay and I told him that I was excited to marry him but that I wasn't having a good morning. lol

He was so sweet as he embraced me at the doors of the Temple. He hugged me, told me softly in my ear how much he loved me and that no matter what had happened, everything was going to be better now. That cheered me up and I went on my way to get changed, and do my make up.

Last night as a Miss

2011-05-03T12:56:00.000-07:00

April 10th 2009

What a celebration! The P & S family would be reunited once again, after so many years. I think our Dad's were looking forward to it the most. (Though they had just seen each other a fewweeks prior) All brothers and sisters would all be together, except for T's brother and his family who were stationed in Germany with the Air Force, on top of that, T's sister in-law was waiting to have her 4th baby so she had her hands tied. My younger brother was serving a mission in Peru. So, all but them. We missed them dearly, but we knew this was the right time to be married.

The night before our wedding everyone met up at the house T's family stayed at. We first ate lunch, us girls went out for a bit and I enjoyed my last day as a single lady!

(Ignore the fact my eyes are closed)

T came back from snowboarding with my brothers (I gave him plenty of speeches not to do anything stupid, for, it was the eve of our wedding! Can you imagine having to cancel a wedding due to the fact the groom broke something the day before? lol) and it was a happy reunion. Here is T's older sister and her husband! They are so awesome and are currently the only ones left in Birmingham, AL. What can we do to get them out of there, and move west?

T's family in Germany were very anxious to see everyone all together. So we made sure to have a few skype sessions during the activities!

After dinner, (which I do not have photos of!) T's Mom surprised us with something I wish they would do every year on our anniversary! lol But we are so very grateful for it and it sure helped pay our way through our honeymoon!

T's Mom asked everyone who was going to be at our party if they would like to donate any little (or big) cash that they had to us. Wow! But, it wasn't going to be that easy. T and I were blindfolded as everyone distributed all the money into easter eggs and hid them all over the house.

The race was on!!!!!

I don't remember to this day, who won but I do know we were

both very grateful. Thankfully, we like to share things so it doesn't really matter who won, right? For those who are wondering, we found over $600!!! Sweet! Thank you to everyone who made it a fun night!

A night isn't over until we make a McDonalds run. And we did just that. After my brother showed up we went on a little adventure. Yum.

Bridals

2011-04-10T15:44:00.000-07:00

Who doesn't love to dress up in their wedding gown, get their hair and make up all beautiful to take gorgeous photos? If you don't, then we need to have a talk! Not only was it a special day because I got to feel beautiful, but my soon-to-be handsome husband got to get all spiffed up in his hot tux and join in on the fun!
We drove to Utah to have our Bridals done by the very talented Sara Boulter Photography! I hope you enjoy!

Road trip to California

2011-04-10T13:35:00.000-07:00

After our fun get together in Vegas, T and I decided we would go visit the soon-to-be in-laws in southern California. His family welcomed us with open arms. Mom, Dad and sister T were all there! We had a very eventful weekend planned.

This is what it's like coming home to the P family.

Lots of excitement and tons of pictures documenting every second! Thanks to Mom P.

Quickly did I learn that Mom P makes sure to have TONS of food waiting for us upon arrival.But who doesn't love some 7-layer bean dip and chips?!

Excuse me for the closed eyes. You'll see plenty of pictures with my eyes closed! I can't help it!

After some delicious food and many hugs and excitement, we all went to the family room to discuss some more wedding plans, we talked about what food we wanted served, who would be invited to the night-before family party. Of course, we included many of these comments, "I just can't believe that YOU TWO are getting married. I would never have guessed in a million years that my son would marry my best friends daughter!" Dad P. sure was/is thrilled about that. Still, to this day, does he mention it at least once during our visits. I sure love my in-laws!

T and I were exhausted, one by one we fell asleep during our late conversations with the family.

The next morning we had breakfast all ready and all who was missing was T. So sister T and I ran upstairs to wake up the sleepy head! (All kids in the P family begin with T, so it's a bit confusing!) He is not an easy person to wake up!

That morning we had the missionaries from the church over to eat breakfast because one of the Elders was leaving for their home. 2 years finished!

Because we had decided to have an open house in southern California for those that couldn't make it to the one in Utah, we had a lot of yard work to do to get it looking pretty! So T, Mom and I had a lot of work to do while Dad and sister T had work to attend to.

I worked on the gardening while T worked on trimming the bushes.

Also during this trip it happened to be my birthday. There is a family tradition in the P family. Birthday person gets a birthday breakfast, everyone gets a hostess cupcake and we all hold our hands/fingers up displaying just how many years old they are!

Oh T and his many faces! It sure was a blast and the best 23rd birthday!

I'll never live in Vegas.

2011-04-05T15:26:00.000-07:00

Upon returning home from my mission, I was unsure of the plan I needed to make for my life. I didn't know whether to stay in Austin, move back to Utah, or move somewhere else and start an adventure.

I remember talking with T about this one day on the phone.I was so confused and just wanted to be in the right place. T had mentioned I could move to Vegas. I laughed. I told him, "Look, I think it would be fabulous to be close to you and we could hang out etc. But, I have been to Vegas, and well, I'm not really fond of it. Perhaps I'll move to Utah and we could just visit each other?"

Like I'd EVER move to Vegas, I thought. T and I were just friends who talked on the phone daily. We weren't dating. Nor did I think we WOULD (at that time). I did however, think it was cute that he'd mention it a few times. I knew he liked me. So, I began making plans to move to Utah. I started looking at apartments, jobs etc. I found great places! But, nothing seemed to feel "right". I would find perfect roommates, but it didn't settle. I talked with T about this and he was understanding and just assisted me in the process. I knew though, that I would be moved by the 1st of March. It just felt "right".

Oh how I love those feelings. I did move that last weekend in February. Not to my own place in Austin, not in Utah, but it was, however, a location I had never lived before and I would be starting my very own new adventure.

I moved to Las Vegas, Nevada. Known as "Sin City", "hot and windy summers" and a very touristy city. That's all I knew of it.

My Dad and I packed my Scion Xb up with anything I'd possibly need. On the road we went. 1,300 miles. 24 hours on the road. I was determined to make the drive so I could see my baby.

My Mom and younger brother J, had flown into Vegas and made it before we did. THEY got to see T before I did! I was totally jealous! haha T had been working nights and had to work that night we got in. So we pulled up to the hotel and I ran in, finding him asleep on the bed taking a nap. I was finally in HIS city. We had 6 weeks to go before the wedding. Things started settling in now. I was getting married to one of the most incredible men. I felt so blessed.

That weekend we told T's parents about us driving in and they hopped in their car from LA, California and headed on their merry way to see us. We not only discussed wedding plans, but had many laughs as we were able to reunite from so many years.

The boys didn't seem to be having too much fun as we discussed plans. Well, they tried.
Our parents were so excited to reunite, especially for the happy occasion!

T and I, were happier than anything to be in the same city!

After many hours of planning the wedding, we decided to all go out to dinner and celebrate. Down on the strip at an Italian Restaurant named Maggianos.

Apparently being on your phone was the popular thing to do!

As the Dad's caught up on life together, R laughed at some jokes and Mom pondered. Probably wondering how we were going to afford everything at the wedding!

It was a lovely time together. It was joyful and exciting! No one would have ever guessed that the two families would ever be brought back together for such a wonderful adventure!

Engagement photos

2011-03-12T16:54:00.000-08:00

Friday February 20th 2009

Because our wedding was only a mere 7 weeks away, we decided it was time to get things rolling! It was a perfect time to get our engagement photos out of the way. My amazing sister in-law, L, said that she would be happy to take them, edit them then have a friend print them. Thank goodness for L because if it weren't for her, we would have had a hard time finding anyone!

My younger brother wanted to take some pictures too, just for fun! Here are some fun, unedited, in the moment shots!

L told T to bite down so his jaw muscles would show. I was doing it instead in this picture! Lol!

Here, you can see T is actually doing it. Yes, good job, T! We praised him.

He obviously did not like the praising, so we all laughed as he made this face:

Oh he loves me so! One of my favorite pictures here!

We took some more photos on some rocks, they were a bit funny and this is one of my favorites.

Here are a few pictures that L took, edited and I love them!

Here is the photo that won our vote and was sent in the announcements/invites!

It was such a relief to know we had our photo picked and ready to go!

I.Love.You., "Marriage" & Meet me at the airport garage

2011-03-12T16:08:00.000-08:00

After our fun little time alone at the theater, we decided to head back to our neighborhood. We wanted to still be alone since our time was so little and oh so very very precious.
We went to our neighborhood park, it was dark, beautiful, spring weather and we just sat on the picnic tables and reminisced our fabulous time together. It was seriously the perfect moment. I felt like we were in a movie. You know, as a little girl, you always dream having those little romantic moments like they do in the movies. Well, I had mine. As I leaned against the edge of the table, T stood in front of me holding my hands, looking into my eyes. We shared with each other how much we did not want him to leave. We shared our feelings, and came to a conclusion that we didn't care that we would be 2,000 miles apart. We would make this relationship work! (I swear, I kept looking around us to see if there was anyone filming us we were so gosh dang cute! It should have been a scene in a movie!) We decided that we would take turns flying out to see one another. That seemed like a great plan...

Until morning!

Saturday, February 14th, 2009.
We woke up, had breakfast, spent the time together cuddling and being in love. Then the dreaded moment arrived where I had to take him to the airport. We left a bit early so he wouldn't have to rush off inside. We parked the car in the garage and just sat and chatted. Not too much later and he leaned over, kissed me softly, looked me in my eyes and said those most 3 precious words every girl drools over. "I Love you, C." There was a pause. I responded. "I have been waiting a few days to hear that. I love you too!" Which was of course, followed by another sweet kiss.
It was so wonderful, to know, that we both had the same exact feelings for one another. It sure makes things a lot easier while dating! haha
It was a bit painful to see him go. But, we knew we'd see one another soon enough.

We of course continued to talk, when he got home that evening, and, then... Sunday arrived. I talked to him later that evening and told him that I made my mind up. "I'm going to move to Vegas", I told him. He was shocked, felt reluctant to let me say so. I told him, that we obviously wanted to be in a relationship, and it would be silly to spend all that money flying back and forth just to see each other for a few short days. I had nothing holding me back in Austin and all I knew and wanted was, to be with him. Simply put. He agreed and we began that hunt for finding me a place to live. We were joyous in figuring all of this out. You know, time was short. He was deploying later that year in July for 6 months. We wanted to make the best of what we had.

Then...Monday arrived. We spoke that evening on how much we cared for one another and that we couldn't wait to be together again. Somehow along our 4 hour length phone conversation we came to a point where, we were both hesitant. We always played this game where we'd ask "What are you thinking", where the person then has to respond exactly what they are thinking no matter what. Well, I asked T that question and he answered the following. "I'm just not sure. I don't want to scare you off. But, I believe that you might be thinking the same exact thing." I commented, "Yes...I think you might be right. Go on..." T says, "It starts with an 'M'"...*my heart starts being really fast, I feel butterflies soaring through ALL of my body* I respond, "Yes...??", he says, "Well C, I guess we just need to figure out if we get married when I return home from deployment or get married before".

WOOHOO!!!!!!!!! He totally read my mind. My gosh, when I heard that, I just wanted to giggle/scream/laugh/jump for joy! Of course I wanted to marry him! I wanted to marry him the very next day!
Even though we had already spoken for SEVERAL hours on the phone, I just knew that it wasn't ending any time soon!
We started discussing details. Who do we tell right away? When do we plan it for? Where shall it be? Etc etc.
It was already around midnight, so I knew that if there was any one person that could help us figure it all out, it would be my Mother. I ran in her room to grab her, she hadn't been sleeping because she knew I was in love and she was just too happy for me! She came in, sat on my bed, and we put T on speaker. We told her we thought that April 11th would be a good date, but we wanted to make sure we would be able to plan a wedding by then. My Mother, I'll have you know, has put together beautiful weddings, partys, events, you name it, within a days notice! I knew she'd be the one to tackle this project. When we asked her, she said, "Are you kidding? Let's do it next week!" haha We already knew we wanted it in the SLC, Utah Temple.
We asked her to keep it "hush-hush" so we could tell everyone. T wanted to make sure to get my Dad's approval before though.

Thursday came around and my Mom and I went to get our hair done. That day, I had called and booked our slot at the Temple to get married. 11am April 11th, 2009. Finally, T was able to call my Dad and ask him. After my Dad said yes and gave him his blessing, my Dad asked when and where were we thinking. T hesitated and said, "Well, C actually booked the temple already and we're getting married April 11th" lol My Dad said, "Well, thanks for letting me know!"
Afterwards my Dad called me and said, "Hey, what are y'all doing in April? Because I want to take our family on a cruise. Say...April 11th? Nobody has plans right?" hahaha He's such a stinker! I told him he could still take us out on a cruise another day!

My Mom felt so bad that we were celebrating our love and engagement so far away. So we went home, she booked T a flight and he came out that very night to see me! You can imagine our joy as we met once again, at the airport garage.

Returning to our story. Day 2

2010-10-27T16:44:00.000-07:00

So back to our love story. I'm sure y'all are just on the edge of your seats waiting for the rest of this! You can only imagine our excitement and anticipation to see each other the following morning. T had slept in my brother's room who is on a mission and I slept in my room. I woke up the next morning and quickly made myself look presentable. Yet to my horror, yes, to MY horror, I looked in the mirror I have in my room and about fell to the ground unconscious.

My lips were BLUE. I thought "what the heck is on my lips?!" I tried wiping it off and nope, it didn't come off. I then realized that it was from some soft kisses T left me with the night before. I guess my skin was just that sensitive having been a while since I had kissed somebody! haha

Horrified, I text T to ask him what in the world I needed to do. I could NOT have my family see this. You can imagine, my hands were so shaky and sweaty. I was so nervous. He text me back laughing saying I should put on black lipstick. Yeah, like THAT was going to hide it! haha (I didn't own any black lipstick anyway.) Panicking, I went through all my make up and tried to cover it up. Let's just say, it was a pretty funny looking set of lips.

So we meet downstairs for breakfast. My Mom is standing in the kitchen and my younger brother J is at the table. Not even 3 min downstairs my Mom comments from across the room "C, what happened to your lips? It looks like you have something on them. Did you eat something?" I tried so hard to avoid it and said I was trying on new lipstick. She thought I was weird.

Throughout the day she kept asking me over and over again, "..seriously C, what's with your lips?" I just wanted her to stop asking! haha I'll get to the rest of this blue lips story later on.

After breakfast, T and I went on a hike in our Preserve in our neighborhood. We had so much fun as we followed the trail to a small waterfall and sat on the rocks in the little river-bend. We talked so much and just had a blast. This is when T mentioned that he could talk to butterflies. haha Oh my gosh, he has to be one of the funniest people I have ever met in my life. (Don't worry kids, we don't have a Dr. Dolittle on our hands!)

That evening we had plans to meet up with my Dad at Dave & Busters in Austin. As we were finishing getting ready for the night, I was in my Mom's bathroom with her helping her do her hair and getting all dolled up, she said, "Now C. I think it's so funny your lips are blue. But I really am stumped as to why they are that way! Did you fall and get hurt?"

I swear my Mom was playing dumb! I thought for sure she read right past that and was just trying to get it out of me. I start laughing and say "Mom. Think about it. My*LIPS* are blue. They aren't hurt..." ****LIGHTBULB**** "Ohhhhhhh....." my Mom says. "Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry! I really didn't mean to draw so much attention to them! I seriously had no idea!" I laughed and told her it wasn't a big deal but that it was sort of embarrassing. We laughed so hard. I told her not to tell my Dad.

Mom, T, J and I get to D&B's first, then my Dad shows up from work. We are sitting at the booth and he sits across from me and seriously one of the first things he says to me with this confused look on his face, "C, you have something on your lips". I start laughing. Silently. Then I just try to ignore it. Now that the attention had already been brought to it, I couldn't stop giggling! My Dad looks back at me and with this continued confused face says "No, seriously C. You have like blue ink on your lips." "C, I mean it. You have pen on your lips." Finally, my mom interrupts and says "S, stop." Then he stopped. haha I never confessed to him till the night before our wedding.

Dinner was wonderful and so much fun. Then after we ate we went and played on all the games they had, boxing, shooting, wave runners..you name it and they had it. I love playing arcade games there!

Afterwards, my family went back home and left us to go see a movie. We went and saw Coraline in 3D.

Here is the only picture we took that whole weekend. This is in the theater. Seriously! How silly of us not to take more. This was taken on his cell phone so it's not the greatest quality. But, this is the weekend that true love took over.

And so the pregnancy journey continues...

2010-10-07T18:38:00.000-07:00

I was doing pretty good as far as feeling great up until about week 6/7. Exhaustion, no appetite, throwing up, nausea, more exhaustion, and so forth. I thought it would never end.

Yet, it did. About week 18 is when things started calming down and week 20 I started feeling like a normal human being. Thank goodness! I felt so bad for T because I'd come home from work and just be so sick and tired. Thank goodness he has been the biggest sweetheart in the world and has taken care of the things I haven't, plus some.

Usually, at the hospital we go to, we weren't suppose to find out the sex of the baby until our sonogram at week 20. Yet, we cheated. We paid to have a 3D/4D ultrasound done. Best $80 we spent! It really brought things into perspective as we could see her. I didn't believe it. I asked the lady if they were just playing a video feed of someone's baby and pretending it was mine. She said "shake your belly", so I did. The picture went all wobbly and shaky. Well, I guess it's real then! We were told that this company has a policy that if they are wrong with the gender they will refund in full. They are pretty confident in their skills.
It was pretty funny because T asked the lady not to blurt out what the gender was, he wanted to be prepared. So when the lady found the perfect view, she had us guess. T says "That's definitely a boy right there. I can see it." I didn't want to say anything! lol I didn't want to be wrong! haha So, as we all know now, the baby is a girl! We were so excited! I felt assured because all along I felt like the baby was a girl but was nervous to say anything because I didn't want my "motherly instincts" to be wrong that soon! lol

Another funny story, when we went to the hospital and they did our sonogram, she said she wasn't "sure" if the baby was a boy or girl. Therefore, I am even more grateful we paid for an u/s to have a guaranteed answer! We have had another 3D/4D ultrasound that reconfirmed our baby is indeed a girl!

Since the very beginning I have been so anxious to start showing. I thought at week 16 that I was showing for sure. I look back at that photo and laugh, because I still look tiny as ever. You can imagine my excitement when I started getting random strangers saying "Oh, so how far along are you?" "Is it a boy or girl?" etc. I beamed knowing people could tell I was pregnant. Although those comments didn't start coming till about week 24, I didn't care. It was all worth the wait.

Oh! As I began to feel movements in my belly, T and I decided we wanted to buy a doppler (For those of you who don't know, a doppler is used to hear the baby's heartbeat.) , so we found one on amazon and were so excited to use it! It was a great way for us to connect to the baby and for T to have a part of this time of the baby's growth. Just today, we tried an experiment. T laid his ear on my belly and heard my heart beat, then he moved a little and could hear a heart beat significantly faster than mine. Then this cute little girl started kicking him in the head. :)

This whole pregnancy has been so amazing. Week by week it's incredible to think there's a little human growing in my body. I love this little girl more than I can express. It's so wonderful feeling her little body inside of mine, she'll kick out, push out, and I can feel different body parts. It's seriously a miracle. I never take one moment for granted. I thank our Heavenly Father every chance I remember for this little miracle.

I can't believe I am 30 weeks pregnant already! I have less than 10 weeks before she will be here. We can't wait. We have decided on a first name, and are pretty sure on the middle, but it's possible we might change it. So as of right now, her name is E.

I am going to include some photos. I'll share some belly photos and a few of the ultrasounds. I hope you enjoy!

16 weeks 18 weeks 2 days

19 weeks 2 days 20 weeks 1 day

21 weeks 2 days 22 weeks 1 days

23 weeks 2 days 24 weeks

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Changing things up a bit...

2010-10-06T13:49:00.000-07:00

I decided that I need to make a post about our little one that is on her way! Because I have been so focused on making this blog start from the beginning of "our" time, I have been slacking and before I know it the baby will have come and I might forget some very important details.

So, if you don't mind, I am going to make this post and dedicate it to our baby girl we are so patiently waiting for.

T came home from Iraq January 31st 2010. After 6 months of being separated I think it's fair to say that being together again was one of the most incredible feelings. I never want to have to go through a deployment again, however, I am sure we will and at that time I will put on my BGP's (Big Girl Panties) and get my game face on. Until then, we will just enjoy our lives together each and every moment.

At this time when T came home we set up our place and were just looking forward to living life. Then an opportunity came up for T at work. If he were to take this year long commitment (with some not so great circumstances) that he would be un-deployable and would be made sure to be home at least a full year before even being considered to deploy. (If he didn't take this job offer, he could have deployed 6 months after being home.)

After he accepted the opportunity we began to think. We had discussed having a baby before but we both had felt in the past that we didn't want T to miss out on the whole experience of the pregnancy and possible birth of the baby so we were putting that off till it seemed right. We told family and friends that we weren't going to have a baby for at least 4 years. :) (Oh you know how excited people get when a couple get married. "When are you having a baby?!" "Are you pregnant yet?!" etc)

We then realized what a great time it would be to have a baby. A FULL year home??? If we were lucky enough to get pregnant right away then he would be able to be around for the full 9 month pregnancy, birth and at least the first few months of baby's life. It sounded great! But we were still iffy about it. So we took it to the Lord. We prayed and prayed then fasted some to receive an answer if we were to have a baby. Then we decided that "hey, if there is a baby ready to come RIGHT NOW, then we will get pregnant." So we took that faith and went with it.

I'm sure that every couple has felt the same emotion as we did as we were attempting the whole "getting pregnant". The timing, anticipation and worry that comes with it all. I began to realize the reality of "what if we can't conceive?" That began to really scare me, worry me to the point that I was afraid to try. After discussions with T, I realized that it was all in the Lord's hands and if it happened to be that I couldn't conceive or would have a miscarriage, it was all because the Lord had it planned that way and we would then go with different options. T is very good about keeping me in the "now" and not letting me get ahead of the situation, or myself.

April 7th 2010, T had just left that morning to go to work. After he left I started to realize that it was about time I could take a pregnancy test. So after much debating, I decided to take the test. (Lesson learned, probably should wait for when your spouse is home to do these sorts of things. But I was so nervous of it being negative that I didn't want to be disappointed WITH T being there.) I about hyperventilated as I waited those few minutes for the results. As you can guess, it was positive! I jumped up and down! I was thrilled! I quickly came up with an idea on how to tell T. I decided I'd go up to his work that night (at this time he was staying the night up at work) with some dinner, sparkling apple cider and cute glasses. I drove the hour up there and he was so confused why I was there. lol So I broke the news to him and this is how it went:

Me: *Pulls out sparkling apple cider and glasses that were hidden in the back seat*
"Alright babe, it's time to celebrate!"
T: *Confused look on face* "Celebrate what? Our anniversary? It's not for another 4 days..."
Me: *smiles* "No, silly.....because we're going to have a baby! I'm pregnant!"
T: *even MORE confused look on face* "You're not pregnant."
Me: *laughs* "Yes baby, I am. I took the test this morning"

It took a bit convincing and I even took the test to show him. lol Needless to say we were thrilled and it was quite a change to our emotions that night.

I guess-ti-mated my due date to December 14th. So at my 11 weeks mark I had an appointment out on base. We were able to have an ultrasound and to hear the baby's heart beat. Heart beat was strong and at 160. Here is a picture of the cute little bean as we called it.

There it is. So tiny and precious. You can see a little head, body, legs and arms. It was a start to an amazing journey.

Our first day together

2010-08-18T11:00:00.000-07:00

February 12th 2009. T flies into the Austin Bergstorm Intl. Airport.

Oh man I can't tell you how nervous I was. I arrived at the airport probably an hour before his schedule landing because I didn't want to be late. I prayed and prayed that we could have the same relationship in person as we did via telephone.
I then saw him coming down the escalator. It was like light was shining down from the heaven's on to only him. ha ha I'm totally kidding. He did look amazing though! He had a gorgeous red rose in his hand and a backpack. We hugged, and went to the carousel to get his bag. He mentioned to me how he hates flying. So the fact that he flew over 3 hours to see me made it even that much more special.

I made him drive, I figured he'd like that. Being the man an all. So as we drove back to my parents house we talked and talked. Mostly about how amazing it was that he was actually there in person and it felt like we had always been around each other. Also, you could tell there was a bit of hesitation, like we were both a little nervous around each other. ;-)

6th Street.

We got to my house where my parents, oldest brother, his wife and 4 kids, then my younger brother were waiting. T was pretty nervous to meet everyone! Although he had known them when he was little. We ordered pizza, hung out and chatted with everyone. It was pretty casual. So after we spent time with the family catching up, T and I headed downtown to the famous 6th Street. We needed some alone time away from family!

(For those of you that aren't familiar with this famous street, it's in a way comparable to the Strip in Las Vegas. It has lots of live music, clubs, bars, restaurants etc. Oh and a great place to people watch! ha ha )

As we walked up and down 6th street, I, for some reason kept walking a few paces ahead of T. He would laugh and say how I was walking too fast. I just said "This is how I walk, so keep up!" with a giggle of course. (I was used to that quickly paced missionary walking) So after many attempts of T trying to get me to slow down, he finally (FINALLY) put his arm around me to hold me close to him. (I know, way cute, right? ha ha ) From that moment on we walked totally in-sync (as in we'd both step with our right foot, then left all simultaneously) and even the stop lights were in-sync with us (ha ha) the light would be green or turn green as we approached it. It was pretty cool. We ended up walking to the Capitol and I took him on a little tour inside to check out the beautiful architecture and how if we stood in a certain spot in the center of the building on a star, the acoustics were tweaked so we could whisper yet still hear each other as if they were standing right next to your ear. Pretty sweet!

Austin Capitol.

After the tour, we walked outside and found a bench to sit on. We sat and talked. Then we cuddled. And we had a really fun time just having our wonderful conversations yet in person. I accidently dropped my keys and T bent down to get them, yet so did I. So I ended up hitting him in the head. Whoops! After a couple hours of chatting on the bench we finally had our first kiss. Awwww. I know. I'm leaving it at that though. No more details! ha ha I don't kiss and tell. ;)

Afterwards, we headed back home and chatted some more and watched a movie. Then we called it a night to a perfect first day together.

The preface (Because let's face it, we all need one)

2010-07-17T13:50:00.000-07:00

For this story to really be tear jerking and sweet, I must start back before 2010, or even 2007 - before it all began.

Yes my dear readers, we must go back to the year 1990 when my dear family was moved to Birmingham, Alabama for my Dad's work. Interestingly enough, so was T's family. :) We happened to attend the same church. Both our Dad's became best of friends, they served together in the church. T's Dad was my brother's (and his own brother's) scout leader and spent a lot of time with them. Camp outs, meetings, activities etc. My older brothers were very close to T's older brother's, they would hang out a lot. (I have 4 older brothers, and two younger brothers, T has 4 older sisters and 2 older brothers)

Both our families lived and were friends in Birmingham until we moved away in 1993. My family moved on to Mesa, AZ for 3 years then off to Kaysville, UT for 7 years and are now settled in Austin, TX since 2001. T's family moved back to Southern California after we left.

Though T and I did not keep in touch during those many years that passed. Our father's did. They would contact each other every so often to get a family update. I remember the day my Dad came in and said that their youngest son T, was called to serve in the Birmingham, Alabama mission. (To serve in the same area where we met) I thought that was pretty cool!

Come January 5th 2009, I am curiously looking on Facebook for emails, friend requests etc. Then I see on my news feed that my Dad had just become friends with T and several of his siblings. I thought that was pretty cool since I had remembered their family since I was little. So, I added him. No harm done. ;)

To my surprise, he accepted my friend request instantly and we wrote on each others walls. "Hey! Long time no talk! What, it's been 15 years?! What's new?!" You know, the silly dumb stuff we write on EVERYONE'S walls when we first find them.

I see he's on Facebook chat, so I said hello. (Or did he first say something? I forget.) So we start chatting for a few min. (This is when I wish we could save our Facebook chat's!) Then T mentions that his internet connection is acting up and he better go. So he sent me his cell phone number and told me to hit him up sometime.

Well, let's be honest, it's rude not to let them know your number too, right? So I instantly text him and say "Hey! It's C, here's my number so you have it too! :)"
----I'm sooooo smooth. ;) I'm so smooth I'm pretty sure he thought it was nonchalant and thought I was being completely innocent and sweet. Little did he know, I was plotting our eternity with that simple text.

No I'm totally kidding. Yeah he was way cute in his pictures an all. But coming home from my mission I decided I needed to be a "grown-up" with this whole dating thing. I didn't want to get all excited over him and nothing come of it. ----

So we start texting. :) Hee hee! Then I had some things to do, and he said I should call him later. So I called him on my way home from FHE. That's where it all started. I heard his voice, I was hooked! He was chill, not pushy, very sweet, wanted to know about me etc. We hit it off and we talked till the wee hours of the morning. Not to mention we started texting again at like 6am the next day. There has never been one day that's gone by since January 5th, 2009 that we have not spoken. :)

This went on for a little over 4 weeks when I finally felt this strong desire to meet him in person. (Now remember readers, I was in Austin, TX and he in Las Vegas, NV so it's sort of far. ) So on Feb 5th, during our "Texting" I say to him "So when are you coming to see me in Austin?". It took me a min to hit the "send" button because I knew he would like to come out and I wanted to make sure I really did want him there. So I sent it. 2 min later he calls me with the cutest most excited voice ever!

"C! Are you serious? You really want me to come out to Austin?"

My reply "Um, yeah? Was that too forward??" *holds breath*

T says: "No way! I'd love to come out! I have wanted to come out for a while now but didn't want to be too pushy! *stops to think* Ok, tomorrow morning I am going to get online and book a flight to come see you NEXT WEEK during my days off"

My reply: *Thinks* "Oh my gosh oh my gosh is he for real? Ahhh! *big butterflies in stomach* This is so exciting and I have to remember to breathe!"
*Says aloud* Really?! Can you come that soon? Wont the tickets be expensive? We'd love to have you here! Let me know if it works out!"

Talon says: "Oh I don't care about how much it will be. I really want to see you soon! I'll make it work."

Ok, that did it for me. I let the excitement take over and from that day on I felt LOVE for him. I could feel a difference in the way we talked to each other. Our emotions were different and little did we know what was all about to go down.

Since this post is already a novel in itself, I am going to end this and we'll talk about the first weekend trip on the next post! Stay tuned!

(Sorry no photos- when I can I'll post some of us as little kiddos!)

Before IT began

2010-07-12T20:14:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time, there was a lovely young woman, who had dreams to fulfill. One being that to serve a mission for the ever so giving and loving, Heavenly Father. This lovely young woman was called to serve in the Chile Santiago North Mission reporting June 20th 2007 to the Provo, Utah MTC. (Missionary Training center)

This is where she was to

learn the language (Spanish) and etiquette's of being a missionary and servant of the Lord. It started here...

Two months of delicious food and long classes, she was finally acquainted with

wearing mostly

skirts, stockings and blouses. Oh and speaking random words in

Spanish which really, made no

sense whatsoever!

After those 2 months, it was time to leave. Say good bye to the infamous giant map at the

MTC and say hello to the "promised land" to which we were all called to serve.

Santiago, Chile of course! (For me, at least!

Ok this is on the outskirts of Santiago. This is actually the beautiful countryside of Colina. I wont go into many details of the mission, I'll save that for another blog! (Or post, I don't know if I can handle two separate blogs!)

Let me back up a bit, you know this lovely young woman of whom we are speaking? Well, as everyone knows, in every fairy tale, there's a handsome prince. Well, MY prince, or *ahem* this "lovely young woman's" prince has a history too. Let's catch up to his story and then we'll somehow compare the two.

T as well served a mission for the dear Heavenly Father. He served in Birmingham, Alabama back in 2003-2005. But since those years are a bit further

than we'd like to go, we'll skip forward to 2007 again. November 2007 T made a very courageous stand in dedicating his time and loyalty to the United States Air Force. So while I'm enjoying myself in the beautiful fields of Colina, Chile.

T is....well here. Check out his view.

Lackland, Texas AFB. Quite the view, eh?

Well that's Texas for you! (Besides Austin, ohhh Austin how I love thee. We'll get there some other time.)

So here is this lovely girl enjoying her 18 months in gorgeous Chile while her dear prince is working hard on becoming a dedicated Airman and serving his country.

Now, for this lovely young woman, it wasn't all play and no work! There was definitely a lot of work and that will be explained in further posts. As for T, well he definitely had his fun times too.

This lovely young woman returned home to her family awaiting her the 26th of November, 2008 in the beautiful Austin, Tx. Little did she know what soon was to unfold in her life.

T, after completing 6 months at Lackland AFB he was stationed at the just-as-hot if not hotter Las Vegas, NV. Little did HE know what would soon unfold near in his future...

May the posting continue!

To blog or not to blog...

2010-07-12T20:12:00.000-07:00

I'm here to tell you it's TO BLOG! :)

I finally had my revelation and I now know, now is the time. So here is how it's going to work, like I said, I have a lot to catch up on and so I'm going to start back to before IT even started. Yes, before T and I even met.

So my dear friends, get ready to get to know the Mr. & the Mrs. before we became as such.

It's been a looooong time. ;)

2010-01-12T16:12:00.000-08:00

Where do I even start? Maybe a sincere apology would be good.

Well as you can tell, my first and last post was May 11th 2009. lol That was 8 months ago! I don't know where the time has gone and I haven't even posted since then. *shakes head at self* I do get to do better at this, and I am excited to start recording life's adventures! I feel like I will be working backwards at this time, because there is so much to fill in from these past 8 months! :) So, from the sincere bottom of my heart, I do apologize for not keeping up with this blogging! Y'all need to kick me in the bootay if I don't keep it up at least weekly...or even monthly! ;)

Ok...let the posting begin!

Just getting started! :)

2009-05-11T22:31:00.000-07:00

Well my dear followers, I must admit...not once did I think I would ever begin a blog. But since the big day for T and I, I've been told by several friends that its now time to join the club. Well, hopefully there are some people out there that are actually interested in our somewhat boring lives.

Well, its time to meet the Bride & Groom.

I'm C...i'll most likely be updating this pad and then there is my greater half...T. Ooooh T...how I love that guy. :) Anyway, We got married April 11th 2009 in the Salt Lake City, Utah Temple. (Temple displayed in first picture)

Ok im tired, im going to close this out and then post again later!