Wednesday, June 27

Only 27 More To Go...

I had never stopped and thought about doing the math on 40 weeks {which is how long it takes to make a baby in your belly} until recently… and realized that 40 divided by 4 weeks in a month equals 10 months!! I don’t know where this “you’re pregnant for 9 months” rubbish came from!

Well, today is the first day of Week 13… which means there’s 27 more weeks. But when I realized that I’m pretty much 1/3 of the way through this pregnancy, I have to admit it’s gone so crazy fast!!

{Note: Dear friends who don’t care to read updates about the baby in my belly… it’s so exciting to me and this is my blog… you might just have to get used to it or stop reading my blog!}

Backtracking a bit {because I want to document things before memory becomes too scatterbrained}, I wanna talk about it from the beginning.

So here’s the story. I actually realized I was pregnant during the first weeks. It’s funny to say, but what tipped me off was the fact that my abs started feeling crazy sore for several days even though I hadn’t worked out at all. Then a few days after that, there were some of the other common factors you hear about such as my bra suddenly fitting much more snug and my sense of smell was suddenly waaaay sensitive!

After a couple weeks of this, we decided it was time to take “The Test.” M waited anxiously in the living room for me to come declare the results. There is a line that is supposed to appear if it’s positive, but when the line appeared for my test, it was really faint. So we were super excited but still a little nervous to be getting our hopes up just in case the faint line was a cruel trick. Luckily, I had a doctor appointment that I had scheduled months in advance only two days later. While I was there, I had them do a pregnancy test. And as we were hoping, it came back positive! The doctor calculated and figured I was right at the beginning of Week 5.

And then a few days later, we were hopping on a plane to travel Europe. But as our travelling began, so did my morning sickness. By the beginning of Week 6, I was feeling sick on and off all day long. From what I hear from other girls, I have been really lucky because Baby has been timid to just leave it as queasiness. I’ve been able to still travel, work, and do all the things I needed to… just with an upset stomach.

While we were on our trip, I had symptoms that made me worry a little bit about things were going. I had my first prenatal checkup the week after we got back, which was Week 8. The doctor did an ultrasound just to make sure everything was okay, and getting to see our baby for the first time made my heart melt! I looked over at M as the image was up on the screen, and he had the biggest grin on his face. We love our Baby!

{During the ultrasound, they said Baby was the size of a cinnamon bear. So cute!}

I haven’t had any cravings but I have had one really strange food aversion – chocolate sounds disgusting! I’ve been a chocoholic for as long as I can remember, and yet for the past couple of months, the thought of a chocolate bar makes my stomach turn.

Now, I’m at Week 13. There are two awesome things that are happening right now. The first is a drastic lack of queasiness! It’s so nice eating and not feeling nauseated 20 minutes later! Secondly, I’m starting to feel flutterings in my stomach! I’ve heard people try to explain what it feels like before and now I understand. There’s no way to really describe it! It’s just like a little tickling feeling in my tummy that I have no control over. It’s adorable!

Tuesday, June 26

When Parents Become Grandparents

To announce Baby to our families, we made picture frames for our parents {yep, M helped paint!} and put our Toms shoes photo inside of the frame. I think they turned out pretty darn cute, if I do say so myself…


Then we wrapped up these cute little things as gifts for the to-be-grandmas and to-be-grandpas!


Because we’d found out about Baby before leaving for Europe, I told my parents that their Mother’s Day and Father’s Day gifts were going to be awesome souvenirs from England {oops, I lied!} and it worked because they weren’t suspicious at all!

Push play and you can watch the moment my parents learned they are going to be grandparents. Note: watch my dad’s face – it’s priceless.



{We told M’s family while we were in New York last week, but we were unprepared with cameras so unfortunately we didn’t get any photos or video. But they were adorably excited as well!}

Monday, June 25

We're Having A Baby!!

We’ve finally told all the people we were supposed to announce big news to first {yeah, those important people like family}, so now we can finally tell the rest of the world!

WE’RE HAVING A BABY!!

And we are so so excited about it!


We actually found out about Baby before we even left to Europe! I’m twelve weeks along right now, which means that Baby should be coming at the beginning of January. Possibly a New Years baby!

We’re hoping that it’s a patient child and won’t try to come early, because then it’ll have to share it’s birthday with Christmas. I was born on a holiday and I know firsthand that sharing your birthday with a holiday is not very much fun as a kid!

So far, Baby has been really nice to me and my morning sickness has been pretty mild. I feel great and am so excited to meet the little guy or girl in about six more months!

This will be the first baby on my side of the family! My parents are so excited!! It will be the first great-grandkid for my paternal grandparents too. And this is the second baby in M’s family, but the other baby will only be 5 months older than our baby. So I’m super excited because they will be cousins that can be friends!

Yay for babies!!

Wednesday, June 20

Wedding Season!

Yep, it’s that whole “mawwage is what bwings us togethew today!” kinda post. But it’s true. This summer will be a time of getting together with some of my favorite people because of a few weddings that make me really happy.

This past weekend, M and I were in New York for Auntie Tracey’s wedding. It was so fun to see her and Mark’s new house on Staten Island and to spend time in NYC {I love “the pulse of the city” … that one was for you, Tracey!} at places like Max Brenner. Yum! If you don’t know what MB is, stop reading this and Google it right now!


New York is so fun to explore with this great guy!

Tuesday, June 12

Happy Anniversary To Us!

Yesterday we celebrated our wedding anniversary. Has it been two years already?! Although the time has flown by, it’s have been an excellent two years and I’m so grateful I married my best friend.


 M spoiled me a little bit when he came home from work with roses, gifts, and took me out for my favorite dinner. He is the best husband ever!

Thursday, June 7

Final Stop: Italy

We only had a few days left for our trip, so we crammed a lot in to be able to see everything we wanted to in Italy. I would love to go back and spend more time there because I really loved Italy!

Our first stop was Milan. We got there in the evening but only planned on staying the night there. We hadn’t booked a hotel in advance and had to try several before we could find one with a vacancy! After a bit of walking, we found one and luckily it turned out to be a nice one!

The next morning, we left for Venice. We were only able to stay there for a few hours but it was fun to see a city with all of its transportation being on canals!




By afternoon, it was time to take off for Florence. I loved the streets and the Italian feel.



There were also several churches that we went to see. They had such amazing architecture!

This one was M’s favorite because it looks fake in background.


We also saw lots and lots of art.

M strategically placed his head to block certain parts of the David statue…


I am pretty clueless when it comes to art, so the magnificence of Florence was kind of wasted on me. Rather than seeing the beauty in it, I just felt like there were way too many naked people {for some reason, that’s considered art... gross.} everywhere!

But Florence had plenty of other things that made it amazing. Like this bridge…


And the food was amazing. Oh I love Italian food!!

Then came the time to leave for Rome. Of the time we had allotted for Italy, we decided to spend the majority of it in Rome, and I’m so glad we did! I loved Rome!

We took a tour of the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. Our main reason for signing up for the tour was so that we could skip the lines, but it turned out we had excellent guides that really made everything come to life.





Our tour was so good that we signed up for their tour of the Vatican as well! The guide we had actually works with National Geographic and knows so many fascinating facts.

The tour he gave for the Vatican was focused on Michelangelo, because the tour would be ending in the Sistine Chapel. He talked about details that blew my mind—such as the fact that Michelangelo had never painted before creating that masterpiece. Our guide pointed out obvious flaws in his work and explained how Michelangelo was an amazing creative genius, even though his actual masterpieces were lacking in true talent. {If that doesn’t make sense, come talk to me one day and I’ll show you examples. It’s truly fascinating!}












Fifth Stop: Switzerland

Switzerland was my absolute favorite. It was amazing! Everywhere was so picturesque that it could have been a postcard.

Our first stop was in Berne so we could see another LDS temple. I love the white building – it looks so crisp and clean!



We stayed in Lauterbrunnen, a town with a population of about 2,500 people. The whole town only takes up a two-mile stretch in a little valley in the Alps, and yet that valley has over 70 waterfalls tumbling down into it.


But it did snow while we were there, so I had to buy a beanie and gloves to keep warm! Normally, I hate being cold. But it was so pretty and serene that I didn’t even mind!


There were also rivers and lakes all around, where the water from the waterfalls ran into.



The water was crystal clear and looked so gorgeous!


We took a cable car to see some of the nearby towns – and one of them was the cable car used in a James Bond movie!


And I made friends with the locals… or at least the local horses!


Lauterbrunnen is part of the Jungfrau region. That might not mean anything to you {because I’d never heard of it before going on this trip either!} but the Jungfrau region is famous for a train line they built in the early 1900s that goes up to one of the peaks in the Alps, making it the highest elevation you can reach by train in all of Europe.

There was a section indoors that was entirely ice! {You guessed it... I was freezing.}


And at the of the ice section, we were outside – literally up in the Alps! From here, we could see France and Germany. It was crazy!




Our last day in Switzerland, we went to Lucerne and took a boat across the lake. Have I mentioned that everything in Switzerland looks immaculate? Because it is. The views from the lake were amazing everywhere we looked!



And finally, we went to Lugano for the afternoon. Even though we were still in Switzerland, it was amazing how Italian this city was. Things like gelato stands and pizza shops everywhere {I’m not complaining!} and people were speaking Italian instead of German.



And one of the best part of Switzerland... the chocolate! Yes, those are sheets of pure Swiss chocolate. YUM!


Fourth Stop: France

France was another country we were just kind of squeezing into the schedule as we passed through. We only spent a day in France and, of course, picked Paris as the city to spend the time in. I hadn’t really heard a whole lot of good things about Paris from friends that had been before, so I wasn’t really expecting much. But was pleasantly surprised! I really liked Paris.

We took the Channel Tunnel from London to France. Right after we got off the train, we found a laundromat so we stopped to wash the contents of our backpacks so that we could be good-to-go for another week.


Once we got that done, we then went sightseeing!

First, we went to Notre Dame.



Next, we went to Sainte Chappelle. This place is absolutely stunning. Each pane of the stained glass windows depict an individual Bible story. And the entire chapel is filled with these window panes. It’s unbelievable!



We went to the Eiffel Tower, of course. We were looking around for someone we could ask to take our photo… when we saw one of my friends from work! It was so random but they took some great photos for us.



We got dinner near the Eiffel Tower and then waited for the sun to set. It was such a pretty area and neat to watch the tower light up.


Even though we only spent a day in Paris, we had a great time!