Birthdays and Fun Stuff!

Last week was Hubby's birthday!!! I spent the whole week preparing for his birthday. Last year for my birthday, he went above and beyond and bought me a really nice sewing machine that cost quite a bit. So for his birthday I really wanted to do something nice for him.

When he got home from work I had to go to a quick training and left a note on the door with the bow tie he wore at our wedding to put on his nice suit and that I'd be back to pick him up.
When I came back to pick him up, he came down and I took him to Edible Arrangements where a treat was waiting for him.
After that we went to one of our favorite restaurants and had sushi. (Don't freak out, I only had California rolls and such like it, no raw fish, I promise.)
I then gave Hubby the choice: do we rent a movie or go see a movie. He's been itching to see Ender's Game and it just so happened to be at the local discount movie theater.

For the most part, Hubby's birthday was a HUGE success.

Since a lot went into his birthday planning, I was given permission not to stress out about Valentine's Day. YAY! However, I came home this week and a box was sitting on our living room couch. It had Hubby's name on it so I left it alone. When he came come I asked him what it was, "You're Valentine's Day present, you can open it now if you want to." Well... yeah I wanted to open it!!! So I did. It was....

a pregnancy wedge!

I have been having a lot of trouble sleeping lately because of Baby X kicking REALLY hard all night long and also my back has been hurting due to the lack of back support and heavy front I have. So Hubby did some research and found this beauty. I used it for the first time last night and I slept like a baby! (I say figuratively not literally... because let's face it... babies don't really sleep...)

Also this week has been fun, because I have new projects for Baby X! I'm working on making him a pair of booties (1/4 done), a white blessing suit, a blue sleeper for him to come home in, Winnie the Pooh material to make a few burp cloths, and some fabric for a light weight blanket, mostly for cuddles if it's really hot when he's born.

**side note**Hubby is squishing my cheeks all of the sudden... not very nice of him... HMPH!!!

Any-who!!! I also was given a TON of Winnie the Pooh books for Baby X, I'm really excited! Some are easy read, a majority are harder but the pictures will make him interested to know what the words say and might motivate him to read. I also got a few books that help promote color, number, and shape recognition along with book that talks about the basics of sharing. So, I'm excited to see which books he gravitates more towards as he grows older. 

Yeah stuff, has been going well in our home. Lots of love and learning. My heart is doing well on the medication. I have insurance finally and am happy with the coverage I'm receiving for the time being (it only lasts for my pregnancy... so we shall see where I go after that). Hubby is always sweet and loving and tires to be his best, even though it can be hard sometimes. Yep! There we go!

How is your week going? Have any thoughts for me or want to ask questions? Please do!

-TBC

Being in Love

Lately I have come to a realization. During this pregnancy I've been ill, tired, cranky, and down right lazy. My poor Hubby has had to put out tons of effort to keep our house clean and try to make me comfortable and happy. It was this week that I was thinking to myself, "Ew, our house is a mess, I wonder if he's going to do anything about it." and then I thought. "Why don't I do it?" I've reflected back on the last couple of months and I've become aware that because of my selfishness, I have in turn lost a lot of vibrancy in my life and it's starting to affect my Hubby. We aren't as happy as we were a while ago and so, I decided to change something.

I cleaned the dishes.

I HATE CLEANING THE DISHES.

Early on in our dating I told Hubby that dishes are the one chore I will avoid at all cost. I despise it! Hubby was cool with that because he said that doing the dishes often gave him a break and he could do whatever he wanted while cleaning the dishes and he actually enjoyed it.

Well, I did them. Then I realized how dirty I thought the sink was, I started deep cleaning that. Before I knew it, I had deep cleaned the whole kitchen. Hubby came home and he was happy. In return I noticed I was happier too. The next day, I couldn't help it, I started to deep clean the living room. Hubby became super thankful and affectionate, and I couldn't help but feel a deeper love growing for him. I've made it a goal to not let him clean anything this week until his birthday (on Thurs). I want him to be happy so badly!

Today I was skimming over the First Presidency Message in the Ensign, and President Thomas S. Monson says, "the Savior is telling us that unless we lose ourselves in service to others, there is little purpose to our own lives. Those who live only for themselves eventually shrivel up and figuratively lose their lives, while those who lose themselves in service to others grow and flourish..."

I can't know what love is until I try to show that I do love. I can't grow unless I make an effort to help others grow. By serving others, I can expect to feel better about my life and where we are going and begin to feel a deeper love for my husband and those around me.

:) Isn't service great?

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Pregnancy Update: Hubby felt the baby kick for the first time!!! Baby X has been pretty good at not letting Dad feel him so, Hubby caught him in the act of a kicking fit and you should have seen the smile on his face!!!!

We are both doing well, my feet are beginning to swell a little bit and life is pretty good right now.

-TBC

My Battle With A War I Thought I Already Won

This week has been VERY interesting to say the least. Hubby and I had a nice 3-day weekend away from work/school due to MLK Day where we chilled and cleaned and really just had fun being together.

Tuesday: I was at work doing things I normally do, when my heart started racing really fast for no reason. I was trying to breathe deep and calm my heart down when I began to feel light headed and the world went black for a few seconds. About half-an-hour later of dealing with the light headed-ness and the speeding heart I knew I couldn't function at work and called Hubby to come and get me because I didn't trust myself to drive home. He came as fast as he could and was going to take me to the Emergency Room when my heart calmed down and I felt like I was getting back to normal, I was just REALLY tired. Hubby took me home and I slept for a really long time, I almost felt like I had run from work to home not driven in a car because my heart had been racing for around 1 hour.

I felt like I was going to return to normal when about 9pm, it started up again. This time was different then before and I knew it. The light headed-ness started kicking in again and I began to fear for mine and the baby's well being and didn't know what to do other than go to the ER. Hubby helped me get into the car and drove me down, I explained my day to the guy up from and told him, "I'm pregnant... 22 weeks along", he quickly stood up and started to talk to one of the nurses that admits people into the ER. A minute later, someone sat me down in a wheelchair and checked my heart rate. It was 200rpm-230rpm. At one point someone asked, "Is our machine broken?" and the nurse answered, "No, that's her real heart rate." They asked some basics about my day and I told them how long these racing heart sessions were lasting. 1 hour had passed by this point and it wasn't slowing down. They rushed me into a room where the put IV in and I met my ER Doc and told him that I have Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome but had it corrected a couple years back. They needed to do a bunch of different tests on me but were running out of room by the number of nurses and specialists they had working on me, they moved me into another room that was bigger and had my heart rate stats behind me.

A lady from Labor and Delivery came down to check on my baby's fetal heart rate, as she put the jelly on my stomach she looked at my monitor and her mouth dropped, "Is that real?" she asked the Doc. He confirmed it. She quickly found the heart rate of my baby and asked if I was having pain. My baby had a normal heart rate and he was just mad that my body was having minor spasms and my heart was pounding so loud, so he kicked his disapproval every now and then. He was fine and I couldn't ask for more, I didn't care anymore what happened next, my baby was fine, and his normal stubborn self.

-2 hour mark-

The EKG guy measured my heart rate and I was asked who my doctor was that worked on my WPW, I told them, I was in luck, he was the doctor that was on call to analyze EKGs that night. He was contacted and sent a copy of my EKG. He told them what to do since I am pregnant. There is this drug that when placed into my bloodstream will stop my heart for a few seconds, wear off, and then my heart should restart by itself once again. Hopefully my heart rate will be normal after the drug wears off. It's kind of like a restart button. Well, after plugging me up to an EKG monitor, heart pads, and going through the risks and what back up plans are and confirming the baby's safety. We went through with the drug. I think I felt death.

As a little kid, I always thought that death would scare me and I wouldn't be ready for it and that I would be ashamed to meet my maker. But as I felt death, I wasn't scared, I was calm, and I knew I was safe. The Lord calmed me in my scariest hour and helped me breathe, I felt my pulse come back and my eyes could function again and I felt my cheeks regain color. My pulse felt normal.

They got some hydration in me, and I was finally left alone with my husband for an hour. We were safe, me, Baby X, and Hubby. This needed to happen, and it needed to happen here while we still live near my old cardiologist and family doctor. If we were somewhere else having this baby, they wouldn't have known that it was my WPW acting up once again, they would have not been sure what to do. But my cardiologist knew heart and knew what needed to be done. The team that was helping me in the ER, they knew what to do to help in every way they could, they did it fast and efficiently.

I am so grateful for the love surrounding me, my family (both sides) really stepped up to the plate to show they care and are there for me and my small new family. I was watched over by my Heavenly Father, and felt his love so intensely. I have no doubt in my mind. This was a blessing in disguise, and I've learned a lot about my Hubby, myself, and my baby.

-TBC

Gender Revealed!

So, last week we had our reveal the gender party for our baby, I had a lot of fun making the cake. It was a hard thing to do, but I finally accomplished it and it turned out nice enough. I made a classic yellow cake but I'm not the biggest fan of the taste of just plain old yellow cake, so instead of using regular milk I used buttermilk and that helped make it moist and add a little bit more flavor. I'm also not a fan of icing that tastes of only powdered sugar so I made it into a mint icing. It turned out pretty yummy. Here is the cake:

 I didn't add anything on the pan because I was getting kind of tired at the time that I was done. So, no brown sugar sand or any fun candy displays on this one. Which is fine. It still was awesome and people loved it. Excuse the mess-ups, this is my second time doing buttercream transfer, I'm still trying to work out the bugs.

For the party I made a poster (which I don't have a pic of) of Old Wives' Tales of which gender the baby SHOULD be. Majority said Girl. One said twins. Which was fun, because there were a couple of previously pregnant women there and they all compared my answers with their experiences. It was pretty fun.

I also make Mario hats and Princess Peach crowns for people to hold to guess the gender they thought the baby would be. The genders were originally split down the middle but Sa decided to switch to girl to make it easier for me to decide which side to cut into.

There are some of the guesses.... now.... time to reveal the gender!

Woot! It's a boy!!!! And his name will be Baby X (he eventually will become Mr. X, but he's Baby X for now) So, in May I can expect a cute bouncing and stubborn baby boy! You can tell Hubby is thrilled, hehe. :) He really is, we just are super tired so we look funny in this pic.

Anyway! Yay!!! Boys!

How did you feel when you found out your baby's gender? Or when you found out your neice/nephew's or little siblings gender? 

-TBC

Christmas and other fun times

Not much has happened these past few months concerning the pregnancy. I started to feel the little person move every now and then. Hubby thought he felt the baby move, he says it felt like "feeling a heartbeat".

My morning sickness has basically disappeared with a few exceptions of being nauseous because I might be sick. I still don't really like eating meat, I can eat some but not that much of it. Mostly red meats tend to bother me, but, I still will eat it if someone makes it for me.

Right now, I'm at 19 weeks (20 on Saturday), I'm a little under halfway done! I don't feel like I should be but I am! I also get to find out my little person's gender on Monday. I'm way excited! Guesses anyone?

I really want to do a reveal the gender party, but we'll see.

November was ok, I felt kind of queazy during Thanksgiving due to morning sickness. We had Thanksgiving Dinner up at my Brother- Wally's house. He is quite the cook! He made these fantastic cheese balls that were to die for. My other brother-Jar was the talk of the party because he brought tons of mini Martinellis. It was really fun, and a lot of people came.

Christmas! Christmas time was fun. I did the 12 Days of Christmas on Hubby this year, I was pretty proud of it.
Day 1- One face mask (he rides his bike to work/school everyday and his face is always freezing when he does)
Day 2- 2 cufflinks
Day 3- 3 raquetballs
Day 4- The Fantastic Four
Day 5- 5 oranges
Day 6- 6 Goldtoe Socks
Day 7- A lucky tie
Day 8- 8 pocket Kleenex
Day 9- a 9V battery
Day 10- 10 Facebook praises
Day 11- 11 songs that made me think of him
Day 12- Coupons for any time
Christmas Day- Shirts and movies

It was way fun, I found everything on Ebay & at Black Friday (I went after the crowds died down and it was really nice) and I spent $20 below my initial budget. I felt pretty proud about that :).

Christmas break was fun because we spent a lot of time with Hubby's family that were in town, so we got to play with little kids for most of break and work on puzzles. In Hubby's family it's a tradition (that no one knows how it got started) to have puzzles on a table in one of the rooms and they try to finish the puzzles that they get that year or didn't finish the previous year. I'm really bad at puzzles, so I have made the choice to practice puzzles. There were 1000 piece puzzles in my parent's basement so I snagged one and have been practicing. Hopefully next year, I can be helpful in the puzzle excitement.

Christmas Eve was delicious, my Mother-in-law is a really good cook so I enjoyed a very yummy meal.

Christmas Day is always interesting for Hubby and I, we spend some of the morning together, exchanging our gifts for each other. Then we went to my parent's house for the morning. Then we went to his parents house for the afternoon. We will switch it up every year because they only live a block or two from each other, so, not much traveling being done and we get to see everyone!

New Years Eve was exciting, the day before we had a fancy cheese dinner at my In-law's house which was fun, there were definitely some fun and interesting cheeses there. Then on the day of, we went to my parent's house and watched movies until midnight. Hubby & my mom took a nap around 11:00 PM so I was the only one awake and when midnight hit I woke people up, we cheered the New Year with Martinelli shots and stayed up for another hour or so.

Overall, a very good break. I also got a TON done. My pantry which was a total nightmare (we haven't touched it since we got married), I finally pulled out everything and redid the whole setup. We actually have a food storage space now, and can actually incorporate it into our meals now and rotate out old cans and such.

Thanks to everyone who helped make the year great (even if I didn't mention it) and I'm excited for what the New Year will bring!

-TBC

Why, hello there!

So, this has been quite the eventful last few weeks, I made an attempt 2 weekends ago to make sugar cookies with frosting decorations for 4 birthdays in our family that will be happening through November and December. On that Sunday we were going to celebrate all the birthdays because that was the only time everyone could be together for the occasion. So you have my sister-in-law; Sa, My nephew; the Goof, my soon-to-be-brother-in-law; Pax, and my youngest niece; Princess. I had a thought that I should make them each 5 cookie designs that depicted who they are.
(If you need me to explain what they are, I will)

Here is Sa's:

Here are Goof's:

Here are Pax's:

(don't judge the ugly circle to harshly, it was part of a motorcycle but it just didn't work and I was late)

Here's Princess's:

(Her's kept breaking on me, I'm surprised Minnie Mouse turned out at all!)

So, there you have it! Chewbaca was the tastiest though... mmmm chocolate! All the frosting you see here (even the decorations) were made out of cream cheese frosting. Now as a warning, cream cheese doesn't work the same as buttercream, it's a lot more fragile and breaks so much faster than buttercream. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! 

This last Sunday, I was pleased to hear my dad speak in his formal military uniform. He spoke to the congregation about service with an emphasis on military service. He honored our Veterans and talked about the sacrifices they gave. They he spoke about how Christ had sacrifice's that he made for our sake and how he is the true image of service. It was so nice! He even had Veterans from WWII all the way to current times stand up one conflict at a time. I was actually amazed! A lot of those men I grew up being in the same congregation as but never new of the service they served. It just made me wonder, who else has been doing things on my behalf that I have been unaware of? I also appreciated what my Dad said about war, (I mess it up but I think I remember it pretty well) "I think few people actually like war, but there are many of us who say, 'We had to try'." 

So on Veterans Day, I had something wonderful happen. I went to my first prenatal visit, I picked Hubby up from work, and we got to hear our little one's heartbeat for the first time. When I heard it I started laughing which made my poor doctor have to go find the little guy again, but I was just so overwhelmed with joy I couldn't contain it! My baby is there. My baby is growing. My baby is coming! His little heartbeat sounded like a little space ship or something, it was so cool! 

I've been sick since Friday, so sick that I have been throwing up at least once every evening. I thought it was because of the baby, but Hubby has a theory that it's because I'm actually sick and the baby doesn't like it. So I talked to my good ol' doc and she told me that the best thing I can do for it is drink some ginger ale, grin, and bear it! My body threatened me last night to give me a fever, but I took some tylenol, drank some ginger ale, and went to bed. I'm still a little queasy, but I should be fine to go to work tomorrow.

Note**: If you are feeling super nauseous, don't eat salad as the only part of your dinner. If you do... you will NOT like it at all!! You have been WARNED!
P.S. Thanks Mom for saving me and for cleaning my dishes, that was awesome of you! :)

-TBC

Good Morning Starshine!......ug

With my Mom telling me that she didn't get morning sickness with all her kids I have been getting pretty hopeful that the same will go for me. I don't like throwing up, never have never will. It seems like such a waste to throw up your prenatal and food from that morning. "Well," I thought, "ok, I can do this, I'm not going to get morning sickness".

Here I am in week 7 and so far, I've just been super nauseous at work and food has lost its appeal later in the day. I work in a school so this week there is a break. This is the very first day of the break and what do I get? Morning Sickness.... ug.

I feel awful, I don't even want to leave the house to go wash laundry because I feel... ug. There is always something you aren't prepared for when it comes to pregnancy and my first one is Morning Sickness. Please, any thoughts for me about Morning Sickness, comment, I need to know how to feel better faster.

So far I've heard of:

1. Eat, even though you don't feel like it

2. Deep breaths

On a happier note, Hubby has made dinner the last couple of nights (because like I said before, food in the evening has lost its appeal) and he did something really clever!  He wanted to make Chicken Pot Pies but without the crust, so instead he changed some minor things about the recipe and made it into kind of a stew that we put on homemade bread or rice. It was a pleasant surprise that it turned out so well, he's just smart like that. Gold star for the Hubby!