"Having a child is surely the most beautifully irrational act that two people in love can commit." --Bill Cosby--

Well, as many of you already know...I am pregnant! Well, at least that's what two pregnancy tests said so I'm gonna go with it :) I just wanted to go a little further in the story and tell you how finding out went and telling Mark, which was pretty clever and creative if I do say so myself. :)

So I really haven't noticed too much difference lately that would make me think I'm pregnant, that is until Wednesday morning when I was just sitting there, minding my own business, eating some oatmeal...like I do every morning...and suddenly that oatmeal did not want to stay in my stomach. So not to gross anyone out or anything, I'll just say that I threw up a tiny bit (thank goodness), and after that I felt completely fine. The thing is I NEVER throw up...even when I'm sick, which is also rare (not that I'm complaining, I would like to stay this way...). So this kinda made me think, hmm..maybe I'm pregnant. That night we had to go to Wal Mart so I was like, should we get a test or what? Mark was like ok...I guess. I think he was a little scared to find out the results...

Anyway, we got home, ate some dinner. He started doing homework and I think the whole test thing got pushed back a little in his mind cuz he didn't say anything about it later. I went and started doing some scrapbook pages from the holidays (turned out REALLY cute btw, thanks to my new paper :). Awhile later I decided to go ahead and take a test since I had to go pee anyway :)...so I did it...waited a bit...waited a little longer...and then there was no use denying..there it was, two little pink lines...eek! I was honestly a little freaked out and completely surprised. We were not trying to have a baby, as much as I wanted one, but last month I had some issues with my birth control and this is what came of it I guess!

So anyway, I went into our study and talked to Mark for a minute, trying to decided how to tell him, and then an idea came to my mind. So I was like, come in here and look at the pages I just did. So he did and was looking at them and meanwhile I was getting a certain scrapbook kit I got at that awesome sale, which just happened to be a baby one. And I went up behind him and said, I was thinking about doing this one next...and he looked at it...and paused, and was like..are you serious??? And I was like, yup, I'm pretty sure. So he had to look at the test himself and then preceeded to be shocked for the next little while, while it sank in.


It didn't sink it for me until yesterday after I did a second test and then talked to my mom and started telling all the rest of my family. I seriously spent 75% of yesterday on the phone with people...it was crazy...there was a lot of screaming and a lot of excitement and it was so much fun!!! There were a couple people I surprised but everyone else was like, I knew it! Which is funny cuz how would they know? But I guess the fact that I was randomly calling up on a Thursday afternoon had something to do with it.

So yeah...how crazy is all that? I am so super duper thrilled though...if any of you know me, you know how much I LOVE babies and how long I've wanted one...I can't wait to start buying things for it and finding out what it is though!!! It just doesn't seem like it'll come soon enough but I'm sure it'll be over quicker than I know it. So I'm gonna just try and relax and try not to stress myself out with excitement and worry. :) I did make a doctor's appointment yesterday and they gave me a tentative due date of late September/early October but I'll find out more at my first appointment, which is ages away it seems! So there might not be too much news about everything over the next month unless you're super interested in how morning sickness is going for me :) haha..joking..but don't worry, February will be a busy month anyway so I'll have other things to blog about...like Valentine's Day and more importantly, my birthday!!! Yay!

Anywho...so I guess that's all I have to say for now...here's some nice pictures of Mark not long after he found out...he was just being so funny, I had to take a picture to commemorate the occasion.

"After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music." --Aldous Huxley--

Thursday night Mark and I went up to Salt Lake to go to the Utah Symphony with Amy and Calvin. They played Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" and it was so AmazinG! Amy had told me one time that she had always wanted to go hear that in concert and I found out the Utah Symphony was doing it and so Mark and I got tickets for the four of us for a Christmas present. In return, Amy and Calvin took us out to dinner afterwards. So pretty much, it was a wonderful evening. The concert was wonderful, I loved all the string instruments, so amazing! These people were SO talented! They also had a harpsichord for a couple of the songs which is a pretty funny instrument.


After the concert we went to a place called "Dee's" (we went there last April when both our parents were here...very yummy cheese fries!). We had a grand ol' time talking and eating and everything. The food was great too. After dinner we went back to Amy's for a few minutes and had some ice cream and then we headed home! It was a great night though and I hope to go back to the Symphony at least one more time before we leave Utah.

(She was a little hungry... :)

(So was he but that's nothing new).

Here's another music quote for you, it wouldn't fit in the title line so I just put it here :)

"Music soothes us, stirs us up; it puts noble feelings in us; it melts us to tears, we know not how--it is a language by itself, just as perfect, in its way, as speech, as words; just as divine, just as blessed."
--Charles Kingsley--





Also, a last little note. Today is my mamma's birthday! So I just wanted to wish her a wonderful day and a wonderful year! I wish I could be with you to celebrate! I love you!

(This is the only picture I have of my mom and all her daughters).

"An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves." --Bill Vaughn--

Continuing on with Christmas break now...the second part, after Christmas, we spent with Mark's family. His parents have a timeshare in Branson, MO so my parents drove us down there to meet up with Mark's parents. My parents stayed one night there with us and we all went out to dinner and then to a show, The New Shanghai Circus, which was pretty good. The things those people do though are just crazy and absolutely mind-boggling sometimes. They are so ridiculously flexible. They had some Chinese drums there too though which were really cool.

The second day there my parents left and we hung out with Mark's parents and sister Amy. Unfortunately Mark and I were both starting to get sick so I spent half the morning sleeping before we went out and about. We went to the outlet mall in Branson and did some shopping and then headed over to the Dixie Stampede, which is the show we saw that night. They had a pre-show thing where they had this juggler perform and he was really good. He did some way cool stuff, even juggling ping-pong balls with his mouth which was amazing. After that we went into the real show, which is a lot of horse stuff and some other animals too. You sit there on these long rows and they serve you're dinner while the show is going on. It was really good food too but they don't allow you to eat with utensils, you have to eat with your hands. So overall it was an interesting experience.

So along with horse tricks and racing they had pig races, ostrich races (very funny) and a live nativity, which was my favorite part. They had real sheep, goats, donkeys, and even three real camels that carried in the wise men. This was Amy's favorite part cuz she's loves camels and Egypt and anything like that. I took a picture of them for her so here it is.


The next day we left Branson and traveled along a very, very windy and hilly road (not cool when you're sick) and went to see Mark's grandma who lives in southern Missouri. We had lunch and chatted for awhile before we had to leave again. We drove all the way down to Huntsville, Alabama to see Mark's brother Michael and his family. It was a long drive too and we didn't get in til late. It was New Years Eve though so we would have stayed up anyway. Although we didn't really do anything special to celebrate it. Anyway, we stayed there for two nights and had a good time spending time with them. Isabella and Jacob are getting so big and are so cute and loved having us all there. Unfortunately though I was still sick and probably wasn't the best guest cuz I just sat there most of the time but I got to talk to everybody and just relax so that was nice. Most of the day we were there was spent watching football, eating, playing the Wii and talking, which was great.

We left on Friday and luckily Amy and Mark and I all had the same flight so that was fun to have more time with her. We didn't get in til late though so we didn't get home til late and then we both had to work the next day so that kinda sucked. But now we're back in school and working and doing homework and it's just not fun at all. This is going to be a hard semester and a long one! It is so cold here too and there is SO MUCH snow on the ground, it's absolutely ridiculous. It started snowing Monday morning and didn't stop until late Tuesday night. I absolutely hate it, I hate driving in it, I hate walking to school in it, and yeah...it's awful. The only thing I like about it is that, well one, it covers Utah's ugly brownness in the winter, two, it makes everything really quiet which is cool, and then sometimes it's kinda pretty (when you don't have to be out in it anyway).

So that's pretty much all that's happened in the past couple weeks. Sorry it's been so long since I posted last. I know my darling little nieces are getting impatient with me. :) Happy New Year to all though! Hope it's going well so far. Good luck with all your resolutions too. I can't say that I really thought about any for me. I guess that one main one would be to try and make it through this semester without crashing...that would be a good thing. :) Another would be that I need to be more patient, I think a long time ago I might have had patience but it's all gone now and I'm not sure why. I would also say I need to work on not procrastinating anymore but we all know that's going to happen so I just don't won't do that one. :) I think the first two are enough to work on for now. Anyway, once again Happy New Year!




(This horses name was Amy, how fitting!).

"Christmas is weird. What other time of year do you sit in front of a dead tree and eat candy out of your socks?" --Crabby Road--

I cannot believe that the holidays flew by so fast and I'm now back in Utah and starting another semester. Ugh. This break was just not long enough. It seems like yesterday that I was here getting ready to go home...what a good day that was. This was Mark's first holiday with the fam and the first time since the wedding that he's seen them so pretty much it's the first time he's gotten to be around them to actually get to know them. It was great fun though. He had a lot of good bonding time with my dad and brother and the other brothers-in-law which hopefully he had a good time. They all went bowling one night (minus my dad but plus a nephew) and had a fun time with that. He even got to spend some quality bonding time with the twins. He had the privilege of babysitting them while all us girls went out to lunch the day after Christmas. He ended up having to watch my sister Emily's kids too by the time we got back. He did such a good job though! First time he ever changed a diaper and everything.


Anywho, we got into MO on the 22nd and were busy pretty much the whole time, or I was. Mark spent most of the time watching movies with my dad or tagging along on trips to town with my brother. I'd see him every once and awhile when I wasn't helping my mom or sisters. :) He did go with me to go out to dinner and to the movies with Sarah and her family. I was so excited to see her although I didn't get to see her as much as I would have liked. I did get to spend a lot of time with my sisters though and had a delightful time with all the babies. Santana is seriously the cutest, most adorable little thing ever and super cute now that she's walking around. And of course the twins are as cute as ever and always up to something. You just can't turn your back for a second on those two at all. They are so much fun though!

Christmas was a lot of fun this year. We did things a little different Christmas Eve and had a "Pajama Party" of sorts. Mom bought pj's for everybody and no one got to see them until that night. It was quite the experience for a couple of people, Ben especially. His were too tight and way too short and it was just hilarious. Mine were actually pretty darn cute compared to some of the other girls so I lucked out. It was fun though. Another thing we did different was the food, we didn't have dinner or anything like usual, instead we just did appetizers and the like and lots of cookies and desserts. We were going to have a cookie bake-off so we all made cookies but never got around to judging them so I think we'll just say that I won. :) Mine were pretty darn good if I do say so myself.

(My mom's "lovely" tree...)

For gifts this year we all did a little exchange where we each had a family and you'd do a gift basket for them, anything you wanted to do. This was supposed to be anonymous but of course some people just had to find out who everybody had. I got my grandma and grandpa and they ended up having us too which was funny. I was kinda going for a winter type theme and got my grandma a scarf and my grandpa some nice slippers and then some cute coffee cups and candy and a deck of pink cards and some little things like that. They got me a cute shirt and scarf and Mark a nice white church shirt and dress socks and then a cute oven mitt with a cookie mix inside and a couple other small little things which were all in a big, cute bag instead of a basket since it would be a little hard to bring a basket back home on a plane. I thought the baskets were a good idea though; much better than a white elephant type gift thing we do sometimes.

The other thing we did that night was a little Christmas program. Each family had to do something for it so we had readings, musical numbers, stories, etc. It was pretty good, especially my Mamma's part. She and Annie did a duet of a song she wrote for the occasion (my Mamma is quite the little song writer, she does the most random stuff, like she wrote songs for both Monie and I at our graduation parties which were very funny). Anyway, this song was really good and I was real proud of her.


Christmas Day was a good day too. We had our yummy tradition of fried bread, which I made the dough for but didn't put exactly enough salt although it still tasted good to me. The rest of the morning we got ready for our nice dinner and chatted with the fam. We had a nice ham dinner which was especially yummy. The rest of the day was pretty relaxed, spending quality time with the fam.

The rest of the trip was just doing random things with everybody and enjoying every minute of it. The kids really liked Mark, especially the girls and especially Jerica. It was pretty cute and very funny. He said she's make up games and change the rules at her will so that she would win. She's a funny little girl. The other girls liked Mark a lot too, even Mellisa. She said half the fam was crushing on him, he's getting quite a fan club out there, very funny stuff. We did celebrate Natalia's b-day while we were there, she turned 11 and is growing up so fast! As is all my other nieces and nephews. Sierra turned 15 on the 3rd and can get her learner's permit...eek! How crazy is that??? She's planning on coming out to Utah this summer for a sports camp and if she does she'll be staying with us...lucky stuff! :) haha..I love you Sierra! She's super excited about it though and talks to me about it everytime I talk to her. Anyway, my other niece Carmen is turning 12 (I think??) on the 15th and then even more birthdays are right around the corner. This is our family's busy birthday time as you can see.

(Isn't that the most attractive thing ever?)

But anywho, it was a great trip home although I wish it could have been longer! I loved seeing all my fam and all the kids and especially my mom after last time with me only getting to see her in the hospital. This was so much better. Here's a "few" pictures from the trip!

(See? She wouldn't leave him alone!)

(I LOVE this kids smile!!!)

(Too cute...that's all I can say)

(I love taking pictures of this girl!)

(This was just too perfect...he's gonna have to do this more often when boys start coming around...)

(The nephews!)

(These girls are so beautiful!)

(See? Adorable!!!)

(Ha! I got Kady to smile! I AM the favorite aunt!!!)

(Hey! They said I could rip this open...)

(And the Rhino is back! With a rider...? Hmmm...)