Catch up!

So the middle of January came and I accidentally dropped my phone on the hardwood floor. My screen did not work. Owen took it to the cell phone store for me and they informed me that the lcd screen was cracked. So $175 later I had a new iPhone 6. I was actually really excited to have an iPhone again. But on the other hand - all of my pictures from Christmas were on my Samsung phone that I no longer had :( so I guess I won't be sharing anything from that - rest assured that it was a lovely  Christmas!

I took this picture at 17 weeks along. I thought it was cute because Zayne walked up with the Doc Mcstuffins stethoscope right as I snapped the picture :)

We celebrated our 10 year anniversary on the 29th of January!! Below is our engagement picture. We both look so young!

This is what 10 years, 2.5 kids, 2 rounds of unemployment, and lots more growing experiences looks like:

First thing that morning we had an appointment to pick out the exterior choices for our new house. Sara was our design specialist and she was super excited to find out that it was our 10 year anniversary and that I was expecting our third child! She kept telling us how much she loved working with us and how fun we were! At the end of our appointment she dug in her drawer and found a $15 cold stone gift card - yes, please!! It pays to be friendly, people - I'm telling you! The above picture is what our home will look like! The stone on the front will be a different color. We are very excited!

 Later than night we celebrated by going out to a Japanese restaurant where they prepare the food right at your table!! It was so delicious! They even threw pieces of shrimp at each person and I was THE ONLY one at the table to catch it in my mouth!! It was quite exciting and it may have been followed by a jump up and down with my hands in the air like I don't care kind of a jig!! Owen also got me beautiful roses and some flowers for Evie to give to me and my favorite cookies and cream chocolate bar from Zayne - which he mistakingly swore was his "mine" until I gave in and shared it with him and everybody else ;)

That next Monday we had family home evening and talked about temple marriage. It dawned on me that my wedding dress was still here at my parents house, up in my old bedroom. I asked Evie if she wanted to see it.  Sure enough I captured these adorable pictures!! I tried the dress on as well and you guessed it - it wouldn't zip past my hips. I was actually quite surprised I could get it on. Zayne was so cute - he wanted to dance with me in my dress. Very sweet little moment :)

Here are a few behind the scene snapshots .....

Zayne was actually posing in both of the pictures and I cropped him out!! Love these two!!

The next day my sister had her super cute little guy! 2 days later was my "big" ultrasound, which of course, included finding out the sex of our newest member of the family to be!

We had a busy day on the 5th of February. My ultrasound was scheduled for 1 pm and then an appointment with the doctor right after at 1:50. We then had to drive all the way across town for our 3rd and final meeting to pick out the interior finishes for our new house at 3:00 pm. It lasted for several hours and we didn't end up getting home until close to 8. Thanks to my parents for watching our kids ALL day long!!

We had such a great experience at both of our design appointments! 

This is a picture of the major interior choices we made! I have always wanted a white kitchen and now I will be getting it!! We are so excited!! We are still waiting for them to break ground - it certainly can't happen soon enough!

After our design appointment we rushed home so that we could share with the kids and my parents and the rest of my family what the gender would be :) I wanted to do something fun for Evie - mainly because she knows what's going on and Zayne still has no clue! So I bought some cupcakes at Winco on the way to our design appointment and I put colored frosting in the middle of the cupcake......

IT'S A BOY! I was really worried that Evie would be disapointed it wasn't a girl, but she was still very excited! She briefly said, "oh, I wanted a little sister, but I wanted another brother too!" And then all smiles :) love her optimistic personality! Oh, and here I am at 19.5 weeks :)

And here are some ultrasound pictures that were captured :

There was no mistaking this peek.👆 in fact, it was one of the first images we saw. Definitely a boy and definitely not shy!

Evie wanted us to take a picture of her, like the one Owen took of me that didn't make the cut to be approved for other eyes.....and she kept getting photo bombed by Owen and Zayne. She was so mad! It was hilarious. Such a little diva!!

I'm ok having another of these :) he is so darn cute!!

Here I am at 21 weeks. I take better pictures of myself than Owen does.....

You can't see it very well, but I decorated the night before Valentine's Day for the kids. My mom always did that for us kids and I have loved carrying on the tradition.

Now this a picture of pure joy!!! I also made heart shaped pancakes for breakfast with strawberries and cool whip. 

So there is an elf yourself app that we got this past Christmas and Zayne still loves to watch it! Every time he sees his face on it he says, "ME! ME! ME!" Such a funny little kid!!

Sometimes it feels like the days drag on and on, but then at the same time I can't believe it's already the middle of February - I guess time has a way of doing that to you ;) we are anticipating the next chapter in our lives adm can't wait to have our own little home again!

Body changes

A year ago this month I decided to get my self back in order. After we first found out we lost our job back in April of 2013, I kind of let myself go. I continued to work out on a daily basis, but the motivation was not there. And then the emotional eating came. Oreos were my best friend on a nightly basis. I kept thinking surely this won't last long; a few months at the most and then I can quickly work off anything that I would gain. I also remember simultaneously thinking, these Oreos are not a good idea, and you will regret this. But it was my best coping mechanism at the time. At one point I had basically shut myself off mentally, emotionally, spiritually. It was a very dark time for me. I was so angry with Heavenly Father, for what I felt, was betraying us, for the second time in the course of 4 years. I could not comprehend the reason behind our situation; what we had done to deserve, yet another set back in our lives, when all we were trying to do was live true to the gospel and honor our covenants that we had made. It's been a long, almost 2 years, and although a lot of these feelings have been sorted out, there are still a few lingering ones, that I'm afraid won't go away, until after our situation gets better. So January 2014 I decided that it was time to stop moping around and feeling sorry for myself and eating every single feeling away and put my energy toward something worth while; channel my focus into something, while we patiently waited for our lives to change for the better. My parents had a treadmill and I decided to change up my routine on there. Owens sister had given me a "hitt" (high intensity interval training) workout for the treadmill. It was 20 min, that's it! I was convinced I could work up to it. Major shin splints and a few months later, I was getting close to mastering this work out! It was hard work, but well worth it! I switched up my weight lifting routine to doing super sets on each muscle group - I could tell a huge difference in the way my body was responding to this change! I have/had more muscle than I ever had before. I was counting my calories at the beginning and then got pretty tired of it. I trusted myself to eat when I was hungry and that was it! So here are a few pictures that I have been pretty proud of. I know it's not much; I'm no body builder and don't really care to be, but I've been truly impressed with my overall body change through out this past year!! Please never mind my silly faces in any of these pictures!

These top pictures were taken when I was first pregnant - you know, before any weight gain had set in! 

The first picture isn't very clear, and I'm not sure why. Also, I'm sparing you pictures of my thighs, because I'm not comfortable with that idea, and I don't actually have any pictures! Hahah! But they have come a LONG way! My abs looked pretty good, too, but I wasn't comfortable posting those pics either, so you are getting some nice arm shots for now :)

AND here I am at an almost full 16 weeks. I blame most of it on night time bloat and the shirt. I feel like I'm bigger at 16 weeks than I was with Evie and Zayne. This is also proof to me that leggings are not pants. At least not for me!! These leggings, which I found at DI for $3, and were pretty much brand new from motherhood maternity (!!), will only be making their appearance in the comfort of my own home and under tunics or dresses and skirts that will fall way farther down than just the bottom of my bum cheeks! Yikes! I still have how many weeks to go?!

As a quick reference, here I am at 16 weeks and 1 day with Evie:

And here I am at a full 16 weeks with Zayne. And apparently a copy of an image on your blog and then saved and emailed to yourself and the saved again doesn't transfer and post as well as the original! So that's why they are fuzzy!

I'm pretty proud of myself as well because I have kept up my fitness routine the whole year. I'm still going strong even at 16 weeks along - no excuses for me!! I plan on being active up until the day I have this kid- that's how I was with Zayne and I could tell a difference in how I felt through out my pregnancy. Plus I kept my weight gain down with Zayne as opposed to Evie :) even if it was only 12-15 lbs less, it was less I had to lose afterward!

Never thought this day would come!

I haven't been blogging very much because I switched from an iPhone over a month ago, and now my photos don't upload automatically to my iPad. Our computer runs incredibly SLOW, so now I've got lots of blogging to catch up on soon. I'll update you with our most recent news; we are having our third child! Aaa! I honestly can't believe I will have three children; have I lost my mind?! We are very excited. I had my first ultrasound in December 30th. Nobody knew about this except Owen, obviously, a sister in-law, a sister, and my insurance agent :) I can't believe I kept it a secret for that long! It actually made the first trimester go back quite a bit faster. My official due date is June 30, 2015. The nurse said that because I went early with both of my previous pregnancies, that I will probably go early with this one; sounds good to me!! I have felt pretty good. Morning sickness has been minimal and the only symptoms I have had are indigestion and fatigue. No puking or food aversions....no real cravings, etc. I would say I got off pretty lucky so far! The Lord knew I needed a break, I think ;) I wrapped up the ultrasound pictures along with a note with the due date and had Evie give it to my mom on New Year's Eve, saying it was a late Christmas present. She opened it in front of my sister, who is due with a little boy in Feb, and I'm pretty sure you could have knocked both of them over with a feather! It was fun to see the surprise in their faces and I was relieved to finally be able to talk about it!

We sent this picture to Owens family email as our announcement and it's how I announced it on facebook. His sister was telling us back at the end of November that she had a dream where she was holding somebody's baby and when she looked at it, it looked just like Zayne! She said you guys must be pregnant. We didn't say much, but she obviously has some sort of intuition! 

This is the best I can do - pictures of the ultrasound pictures!

When we went in for the ultrasound, the tech tested it out on my belly first to make sure she could get clear pictures of the baby. Once she confirmed that it would work she walked out of the room to put it in the computer as ordered. After she walked out I asked Evie if she new what was in my tummy. She answered no. I told her it was a baby and she got SO EXCITED! The first thing she said was, " if it's a boy it will solve all of my problems because then Zayne and him can wrestle each other instead of Zayne trying to wrestle me all of the time!" She was pacing back and forth excitedly while she was saying this! I love that girl - she cracks me up!! Of course she really wants a baby sister so she can play with her. We will see! My 20 week ultrasound is set for Feb 5. I think it will be here before we know it; time seems to be flying by at this moment! The ultrasound tech and dr said that the baby looked perfect! It's heart was beating a strong 140 beats per minute. Great news to hear!

When the dr walked in, he looked at Evie and Zayne and said, "WOW! You guys make beautiful children!" (Like he's going to say your kids are hideous ;) anyway, I responded with, "that's why we decided to have another one!" On our way out of the office, the nurse and one of the other nurses, told me that they couldn't get over how adorable my children were! Of course I think that, they are my own children, and this is my blog, so I will share what I want to!! ;)

On other news, Owen and I signed a contract of intent to build a house out in Middleton. I never thought I would end up there, but it's a great option since Owen works in Ontario. We didn't want to live in Nampa, Caldwell, Ontario, or anything in between. So this is a great compromise! You know how sometimes things just work out? That's how this house deal was. We have been looking since Owen got his job. Rental prices are ridiculous and housing prices are most likely just going to be going up. We had been looking into building out there for a while, but it just never reached the point where it would work. It was like we were close, but not quite there. When we "stumbled" upon the floorplan, it just felt like it clicked. Like we had finally found what we were looking for, and in our price range. The one we decided on is the best bang for our buck. It's completion date will probably be June. I know, I am crazy! Why do I like to make big life changes all at the same time? Remember when I moved from Moses Lake a week after Zayne was born? Yeah, that was not fun. But hopefully it all works out. I have a feeling 2015 is going to be a good year for us; I hope so anyway! In one of my favorite talks given by Elder Uchtdorf, he says: 

"Often the deep valleys of our present will be understood only by looking back on them from the mountains of our future experience. Often we can’t see the Lord’s hand in our lives until long after trials have passed. Often the most difficult times of our lives are essential building blocks that form the foundation of our character and pave the way to future opportunity, understanding, and happiness."

I don't feel like we are quite to the top of our mountain yet, but I think we are getting closer. Like I said before, 2015 is going to be good to us. And I can't wait to see what's in store! Happy New Year, with happy new beginnings!!

Life goes on...

I haven't posted in a while because we haven't been up to much. Just the same ol same ol. So here are some pictures from the last little while. 

Evie loved doing the donut on a string game from Halloween time that she requested we do it one night for family home evening. I had the kids remove their shirts so they didn't get all messy! Zayne didn't quite grasp the concept of the whole thing, so he ended up just grabbing the donut and eating it that way :)

I took the kids to Burger King one day and Zayne was mesmerized by all of the construction going on on the outside of the building. He sat like this the whole time. Such a little boy!

My mom found an edible wax mustache in the clearance bin after Halloween. Evie thought it was pretty funny!

We had a big snowstorm back in November and the kids had fun playing in it!

Owen borrowed his brothers four wheeler and dragged the kids around behind it on their sleds. They had lots of fun with that!

I was pleasantly surprised when I saw Evie's kindergarten pictures. They turned out so great!

I was helping in her classroom the Thursday the were sent home and her teacher said, "you have to look at Evie's pictures; they turned out so cute. All the kids turned out good, but Evie's especially!"

These cousins have lots of fun together. This was taken on Thanksgiving. We had a great day!

The Sunday after Thanksgiving we went down the Owen's sisters church. Owen's nephew is leaving for a mission to Italy, so we went down to his farewell. His other sister had our name for Christmas this year and she made the kids both a very nice quilt!! 

They loved them so much! They had them on their laps the whole drive home and couldn't wait to go to sleep with them that night, as pictured below!

On the way home from Owen's sisters house, we stopped at my grandparents house and put up their Christmas decorations. The kids absolutely loved it!!!

Grandma and Grandpa Great gave the kids $1 each and they were in heaven :)