I grew a baby!

When we decided we wanted to start a family, we never thought it would happen so quick! I had been cramping for a week before my scheduled period and decided that since that was not normal I would take a test. So on October 12th Tyler went to the store and picked up some super cheap pregnancy tests. They came back positive. But I wanted to be sure and despite Tyler telling me it didn't matter what kind of test I used...he went anyway and picked up another, more expensive test. He is so patient with me :) This test also came back positive and said I was probably about 2-3 weeks along. I was super excited. I wanted to try and surprise my parents when they came to Rexburg in December, but I can't hold a secret in. I told Hope first and she was so excited for us! Despite wanting to keep the secret from my parents, I just couldn't. So at about 5 weeks pregnant I told them. So exciting :)

8 weeks 6 days

We set up our first appointment to see our baby. I was nervous but excited to see. The tech found him quickly and said everything was looking good and that i was further along than I thought I was.

10-11 weeks

The first trimester was rough, but not as rough as some people's first trimester. I felt sick, but never really threw up. I had meat aversions and got sick even thinking about meat. I craved orange juice. I ate what I could stomach. I eventually craved KFC. Not the healthiest option, but it was so good!

16 weeks

 Around 17 weeks I felt and saw movement. It was a little but enough that Tyler could feel. I probably could feel movement before but mistook it for other things.

19 weeks

                                        

                                                 19 weeks 5 days 

During this ultra sound  we found out we were having a boy! I wasnt sure what we were having and my mind changed every day. I was wrong however, I thought we were having a girl. Tyler was confident we were having a boy. He was right!

During the second trimester, I could eat whatever I wanted without feeling sick. It was wonderful! The only problem was that I had to eat alllll the time or I would feel sick. 

22 weeks 4 days

25 weeks 4 days

29 weeks

 The third trimester was not to bad as well. While he definitely was a mover and kept me up at night, I loved it. I still had to eat a lot to keep my blood sugar up, but overall it was pretty smooth sailing. Dallin loved to kick me at night when I first laid down to sleep. Every day I loved watching him move. It was definitely my favorite part.

31 weeks 4 days

32 weeks

34 weeks 5 days

 I started getting braxton hicks that were stronger around this period. I had them since 20 weeks, but water always helped. I would guzzle water. Its amazing what being hydrated can do for a pregnant woman. But water didnt help too much around this period. They werent really frequent, but i definitely could tell I was getting them.

36 weeks

37 weeks 2 days

 My mom came and helped me get ready since I was dilated to a 1.5 and 80% effaced at my 36 week appointment. It didnt slow down either. My 37 week appointment I dilated to a 2.5 and was still 80% effaced. I didnt make it to my 38 week appointment though, because the baby decided he was ready!

38 weeks 3 days

Here is the last picture I took. It was right before heading out the door to the hospital.

Christmas Break in Oregon!

Fall semester ended well for both Tyler and I. The stress of classes was finally gone (till next semester) and we prepared to travel to Oregon. I bought a special pillow for my tail bone in hopes that the 12 hour trip won't create more flair ups with my cysts. Tyler went to work for the week, and then we headed out on Friday night and drove to Ontario and stopped for the night. We lucked out because the roads were not bad at all! It must have been all the prayers we said :). We got up early the next morning and headed on the road. We stopped shortly at Multnomah falls, and then headed on our way till we finally got to my Mom and Dad's house.

We played lots of games, and ate lots of good food. I gotta say I miss their cooking! I'm not as adventurous at our apartment and we have been eating a lot of the same meals. Lame, I know ;) . Christmas was great, and we loved our presents. When it gets warmer we will for sure be using our picnic basket and blanket!

Since we had so much time, we planned some trips. My goal was to sell Tyler on the Northwest! He had never been to Oregon before so it was my chance to show him what there is to love. We went to the Evergreen Aviation Museum one day and had fun looking at all the planes.

We also wanted to go to the coast. We chose a day when the weather was supposed to be good, or at least not raining, and headed out. I missed the beach so much! I love watching the waves. 

In front of Haystack Rock 

Mom, Emma, and Tyler

The last thing we did was go to Portland. My mom came with us and it was a good day! We went to Voodoo doughnuts and then China town to look at the stores. We also ate lunch there.

Maple Bacon, Voodoo Doll, and a Raspberry filled doughnut.

Tyler, Me, and Mom inside Voodoo. Finally in the warmth after waiting in  line! 

Then we went to Powell's City of books. It is the largest, new and used bookstore in the world. When we first walked in I didn't think it looked that impressive, until I noticed that each room lead to anther room, which lead to another room, which lead to another room. Each room was HUGE and they color coded them to help with finding the area you want to be. We didn't buy anything, but it was definitely a cool place!

It was so good to go home to Oregon and see everyone. I'm glad we were able to make it!

Straw Maze and Big Jud's

Fall semester had started and we were pretty busy most nights. Between the homework and studying, we decided that we needed to take a break and go do a straw maze. Around Halloween time I used to do Corn mazes with my friends and family, and I didn't want to stop that tradition. So I told Tyler about this straw maze that I had been to the year before. Plus, they supposedly had a wallaby there! So we printed off instructions to the place and headed out.

When we got there I looked around for any sign of a wallaby, and sadly, I never found it. We must have come when they put it away. So sad...

 Tyler was impressed with how big the maze was, and how tall they made the walls. It definitely made cheating impossible!  What I liked was that they made places where you had to crawl under the bales of straw to get to the different areas. With Tyler's amazing sense of direction and maze skills, we made it out much sooner than I thought we would have :)

 

Next up was Big Jud's. They are famous for their large burgers.  The restaurant was in an old run down looking building, and they definitely didn't have enough seating for the amount of people who wanted to eat that night. But it was worth the wait :)  We got "The Big Jud's Special" that included the burger, 2 drinks, a basket of fries, and 2 waffle cones with ice cream. It was quite a lot of food, and we ended up stuffed and with left overs. 

"R" Mountain

We decided that before school started up in the fall we should go and hike "R" Mountain. It's real name is the Menan Butte and it is a volcano. From the look of it, I thought it would be a fairly easy hike, however, that was not the case. We were huffing and puffing before we even got half way up! Its partially because of the sand, and also because it has quite the incline at the beginning. 

Isn't it deceiving?  lol

This is just after the sandy portion. I definitely used the chain to help me up! 

This is how most of the trail looked when we got on the top of  the  butte. 

 This gives a good idea of our hike. We hiked up to the top and then walked around the outskirts of the butte.

We ended up finding a good place to stop for a rest and lunch. It was overlooking the river and valley. 

View we had when we ate lunch

Here was our view of the "R". It definitely needs a makeover! I refused to leave until we found the R...poor Tyler just put up with me. They didn't have any trail leading to this area, and once we were on top of the butte we had no idea where it would be. But we lucked out when we ventured off the trail and spotted it. 

After we saw the views and found the R, we decided we were tired and headed home to our apartment.  I definitely enjoyed the hike, and it reminded me that Idaho is pretty in its own little way ;)

A little bit of Summer

 One of the first things we did this summer was go for a hike. With Marc and Judy's help we were able to decide on desolation trail which has an overlook of the Salt Lake Valley at the end. After what seemed like the longest hike we finally made it. Poor Tyler had to stop every so often for me...or i would have died. I really need to do this more.  I refused to let Tyler take our picture at the top until my red face had died down a bit, but its still a bit pink after maybe 30 minutes or so. My darn my red face makes me look like i am even  more out of shape than i really am ;)

 Here was the view at the top. It was very pretty!

Going to the Anderson Cabin was another fun thing we did one weekend. I was determined to get Tyler up there to see it since I have been there almost every single summer of my entire life. Sadly this time the swing was taken down. It was sad to walk up to where I used to spend most my time whenever we would go to the cabin and see a cut down tree :(

 And no worries Mom, Tyler thought it was beautiful and did enjoy his stay!  this is proof for you lol :)

 Love this place :) and not to mention I came up here to help stain those benches on the deck with Judy, Grandma, Noreen, and Alyssa. Made me appreciate it even more!

 Next up was the Hogle Zoo. If i didnt get to Lagoon (which we didnt) I was at least determined to go to the zoo. I love the animals :) It was a pretty hot day, and thankfully we got some cloud cover and even some rain  to add to the fun.

 Cant go to the zoo without drinking from the lions head!

 I also decided to brave the bird show so Tyler could see it....for all of you who dont know, I HATE birds....I'm sure I looked ridiculous trying to dodge the flying birds. I swear if I didn't some of those doves would have smacked right into my head.  But overall, if they kept their distance like this eagle I am ok with them.

 The last major thing we did was go to the Kinsman family reunion up in near Twin falls. It was at a place called Nat Soo Pah. It was at a campground with a pool that uses the hot springs water. It was definitely a different kind of swimming pool, but we enjoyed ourselves. It was much nicer swimming at night rather in the heat of the day in a warm pool.

 Before we left Twin falls, we saw this beautiful river and quickly pulled over before entering the interstate and took some pictures. Below is a picture of some one who parachuted off the bridge. Some people are crazy! I dont think I could do it, but it was good entertainment.

 See, isnt it pretty?

Back in Idaho

Well we are back! For the past 4 months Tyler and I have been living in the SLC area with my Aunt Judy who so kindly let us stay in their basement. While there, Tyler completed his internship with the LDS church's  ICS headquarters in Riverton. Now he is down to about two more semester left of school! 

Before moving up, I had no idea what kind of apartment we were moving into. I knew it wasn't in a complex, and that it was old, but other than that Tyler couldn't really explain to me what it was like. So i moved in here with low expectations ;) but it really isn't a bad apartment. We are within a couple minutes walking distance to campus and close to our friends. We were really lucky to get this apartment and i am really grateful that Tyler has his connections in Rexburg or we would have ended up in some super expensive apartment complex somewhere much further from campus. 

Well here is the entrance to our apartment. Just through this door is a flight of stairs that leads up to our apartment and one other apartment.

This shows the empty office space below us. That is our living room window on the second floor. Also, we are right next to a Chinese restaurant. Tyler loves chinese, so we will have to try it out.

This is the other side, a barbers shop just below the other apartment. And you cant see it in the picture but the building extends for quite a ways and that is where a body shop and a rent-a-car have their businesses. The body shop can be a bit loud, but we really only hear their really loud air compressor. 

This is the entrance into our apartment. To the right is the kitchen and living space. Ahead is our bedroom. and to the left is a bathroom.

Here is the kitchen which I was happy with because of all the space it has. It is so much nicer to share with only one person as compared to last semester when it was 6 of us girls trying to cram everything in to the limited space.

 Here is our living room. No couch yet, but we are thinking of putting a futon in here. or something that can be assembled. Our front door is a tight squeeze and most the couches we have seen at the DI are a bit to wide for the space.

 The bathroom

 The shower

 Our bedroom is pretty large, which is nice. No more cramming things under the bed!

 The other side of the bedroom with a very large closet with lots of storage space.

 Here is another part of the living room. We decided to put Tyler's computer there and the bookshelf. It's not very organized right now....but we are working on that ;)

 This is our view out the window. We can see the temple, which I love!

Once we get things decorated and find a place for everything it will look a lot better, but I am very happy with our first place!