Sunday, March 20, 2011

Whoa! Where'd that belly come from?

Well, as most of you know by now, We're Expecting!  We are due July 5, 2011.  
In the wee hours of the morning on November 1st, I was wide awake.  My period was five days late and I knew there was a pregnancy test in the bathroom.  I anxiously waited for Steve's alarm to ring at 4:15 am.  When it did, I told him I wanted to take the test.  He was pretty excited and said okay!  I was totally expecting a negative but wanted to be sure so I could go back to sleep!  Little did I know a few minutes later our world would change!  So I read the directions thoroughly to make sure we didn't screw it up.  I set the stick on the counter and finished up.  Before I could even stand up, it had two clear pink lines in the window! Steve was shocked and started looking for the instructions to make sure that two lines meant positive.  (By the way, it says right on the stick!  Silly boy!)  I was completely shocked and instantly started crying out of worry and excitement.  How much Ibuprofen had I taken in the last month????  I didn't know!  
Then we started discussing who and how we were going to tell.  We decided to tell my parents and Steve's sister Carolyn that evening.  Right after work I ran to Robert's Crafts and bought a sheet of iron on transfer paper.  I designed the logo on Optimus' shirt below.  It reads "I'm going to be a BIG BROTHER! July 2nd".  We invited my mom over for dinner that night (my dad was at work) and let Optimus out into the living room to greet her.  She read his shirt and said "You're getting a new puppy?"  She claims she understood, but didn't want to jump to conclusions.  Oh and Steve was also wearing a t-shirt that said I <3 hot moms!  
After mom left, we rushed out to see my dad at the fire station.  I'm sure he was curious as to why we wanted to make a sudden visit late in the evening.  We showed him a close up of the picture above and he did not "get it".  We explained some more and then he said, "Oh!"  Then we zoomed out to North Salt Lake to tell Carolyn and Bob.  They had to expect something was up.  It was well past 9 pm now.  We sat them on the couch and just told them.  It was pretty exciting because Carolyn had recently told us she was expecting.  And Steve's other sister Keri was also expecting!  Wow, how did that happen?  Well, okay, I know how it actually happened, but if you don't, go ask your mom and dad!  
I already had my yearly exam scheduled with my OB/GYN for two weeks from that day.  But of course I called them to see if I needed to or could possibly (even if I didn't NEED to) come in earlier.  They just said they would change my appointment type and I was all set to come in on the day I was already scheduled...dang!  Oh well, we waited very patiently (not!) for that day to come.  I was soooooo nervous!  When the day finally came, I was so anxious and such a bundle of nerves that my blood pressure was uber duber high.  It was like 165/110!  Yikes!  They took my B.P. again after my appointment and it wasn't as high, but still on the higher end.  I was scheduled for an ultrasound later that week.  Here is our little peanut.  We were told the little circle with the black spot in it on the right was the yolk sac.  The yolk sac later becomes part of our little baby's belly.   As you can see in the picture our nut was 7 weeks old in this pic.
Steve and I had figured out the date of conception since at the time I had been keeping track on my phone.  We thought the due date would be July 2nd.  But the doc went by the first day of my last menstrual cycle which put our due date at July 5th.  By the way, I don't think I mentioned this, but our sweet baby was planned and we had been trying for just two months!

Now it's time to watch the ever expanding belly and boobies!  hahaha Sorry had to put that in there!  This is me at 9 weeks.

12 weeks Wow!  Who did that hair?  Apparently not me!

15 Weeks

18 Weeks

21 weeks I originally thought that I'd wear the same shirt over and over to see how tight it got, but then I got tired of all my pics looking the same.  So now I switch it up.

24.5 Weeks  Getting bored of that same smile week after week?...I am!  My belly seems to have actually shrunk in this one.  We keep track on the door behind me with blue tape and this time around it was smaller.  

About a month or so ago, I started to get major back aches sometimes in my lower back, but mostly my upper back.  I tried out the basic belly support band which was just a wide elastic strap that went around your back and under your belly.  That NEVER stayed in place.  So I had to go back and get the industrial strength one! Mikey here is demonstrating what I wear under my clothes every day.  He looks much cuter in it than I do!  I think it actually fits him better too!  He doesn't have my "wide load coming through" hips!
On February 24th we went in for our big ultrasound!  We were super excited because we hopefully would find out the gender of our little baby.  After actually seeing a baby in there...whew!! we asked the tech what side my placenta was on.  Steve had read a study done a few years ago that could identify the gender of a baby as early as 6 weeks by seeing what side the placenta was on.  It has a success rate of about 97% so we were excited to see if it was right.  The tech told us the placenta was on the left back side.  That would mean a girl. We had always thought it was a girl for some reason, but weren't sure.

This is our sweet baby's profile.  That would be a leg sticking out of its belly. :-)  

 Here is the baby's arm.

 This is another profile of the face.

 This is looking straight on at the face.  The big circle on the right is the belly.

Here is a cute little foot.  Can you see the big toe spread apart from the other ones?

 Here is our favorite picture.  You can see the baby's spine and profile.

To tell the family what the gender was we decided to have a big reveal party.  I made cupcakes and had dyed the batter pink or blue for the gender of our little one.  Steve was soooo cute. He decided to make a survey on his new Motorola Xoom tablet.  As the family came into the house, they each had to state their name and what they thought our little baby was, a boy or a girl.  Out of 18 people, 11 said boy and 7 said girl.  What is just amazing is I did a graph in my class the next day to see what those kiddies thought it was going to be and we had EXACTLY the same results.  Eleven kids said boy and 7 kids said girl.  (By the way, no I do NOT only have 18 kids in my class....I wish!  Some were just absent.)

Here is a picture of mom finding out.  It's a little fuzzy, but you can see the excitement.  She took a big ol' bite out of her cupcake!

Here is Grandma Adams' reaction!  She had licked a small bit of frosting off the top!

Here are more of the family eating their cupcakes.  Notice Grace's cupcake in the middle of the table.  We had told all the kids they couldn't even TOUCH them until I said "go".  I think that just confused poor Grace and she thought she was being punished when we told her she couldn't touch it.  It took a lot of encouragement to get her to touch and eat her cupcake.  

If you didn't know already, or couldn't see the cupcakes, here is the ultrasound picture that explains it all!
IT'S A GIRL!! 

Well, I think this is a pretty sufficient blog post for the first one in almost a year!  Yikes!  But next time I will show you all the awesome baby stuff we have already gotten.  Both Steve and I can't seem to leave a store without first walking through the baby department.  It doesn't matter if we've walked through it recently before, we still have to have a looksie!  ;-)

Monday, May 17, 2010

Our West Haven Home


As I'm sure most of you know, we moved to West Haven.  Goodbye busy Gentile, hello Cul-de-sac!  We have been living in our new house for about a month.  We have almost emptied all the boxes, but then I think about a 10 x 10 square foot storage unit that is still full of all my pre-marriage junk and that makes me sad.  So let's focus on the positive!  I have the kitchen and dining room completely decorated to my liking and am ready to show it to the world, or ya know to the 2 blogstalkers, I mean, loyal fans (you know who you are)! 

Above you can see the beautiful front of the house.  Please ignore the dead grass...we're working on it!
Here is the back of the house.  We have a small deck.  Then this next picture gives you an idea of how big our lot is.  Our house sits on 0.6 acres.  The blue tarp all the way in the background is our dog run.  Eventually there will be grass in the foreground of this picture. 
And now for the inside!
Here is the dining room and kitchen.

A closer view of the kitchen.  We started out wanting a bistro feel to our kitchen.  That has since changed to a wine, grape, and vine feel for our kitchen.  On top of the cabinets are grape vines with grapes. 

A closer view of the dining room.  We got this cool chandelier with vines inside the glass cups or you can put them outside for a more dramatic look.  We both adored the bar stool height table.  It can sit up to ten!  And no we will not be filling it with kids anytime soon.  And don't worry, we DO realize it may or may not be a good thing to have this high of a table when we do have kids! 

You can see our massive pantry in this picture...just imagine it through that door.  Over on the wall is an awesome wine rack with some wine paintings.

Here is a closer look.

As I finish decorating the rooms, I will post more pics...so you know this could take years for you to see my whole house!  You might as well come over and see it in the process!  Oh, and I expect you to bring a basket of house warming cookies!  Yumm!

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Happy Birthday to My Handsome Husband!

It is my sweet Steve's birthday today.  He is turning 29!  (for the first time for those of you wanting to know)  Since he is turning 29, I am going to give you a count down of my 29 most favorite things about him:
29.  He's older than me ;)
28.  He's not afraid of being himself
27.  He is so handsome
26.  He likes vacations
25.  We think alike on most things
24.  Steve always listens
23.  He loves documentaries and NPR
22.  He always tries to solve problems
21.  He likes to run errands with me
20.  He is always trying to be a better person
19.  Steve has a great sense of humor
18.  He always kisses me goodbye
17.  He humors me by watching my tv shows
16.  He wants the same things in life as I do
15.  He adores my family
14.  Steve loves me for who I am
13.  He always kisses me goodnight
12.  He buys me jewelry
11.  He loves technology
10.  Steve has the most beautiful eyes
9.  STEVE DON'T READ THIS ONE!  I love his dimples!
8.  He gets my jokes
7.  He helps and loves his siblings
6.  He can be so geeky
5.  Steve's a fabulous lover ;)
4.  He makes up songs about me
3.  He is honest
2. Steve is my best friend
and finally
1. Steve is the man of my dreams.  I cannot think of spending the rest of my life with anyone else. 
Happy Birthday Honey!

Monday, February 8, 2010

Weight Loss Challenge Week 4

Ok guys I have a confession.  I was thinking that I did a horrible job this week so I told Steve, let's just not weigh in and we'll see if anyone notices.  Then my curiosity got the best of me.  So I weighed in this morning and it wasn't that bad.  I did go up, but not by much.  I'm sad to say though, had it been a horrible number I would have stuck with the plan to see if anyone would notice me not posting our weights this week.  I didn't take any pictures but I have the next best thing.

Sarah's Stats:
Last Week: 225.2 lbs
This Week:
That is a gain of .6 lbs. 

Steve's Stats:
Last Week:  221.6 lbs
This Week:
That is a loss of 1.4 lbs.  This just goes to show that Steve and I deal with grief in different ways.  I eat and he doesn't. I promise to try hard this week, but we are going to the Melting Pot for Valentine's Day and I am definitely getting my money's worth.  I know, I know, those are the thoughts of a fat person.  I don't think skinny people think that way...maybe one day.  

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Our Precious Little Fluff

Tonight, I wanted to post a very special entry for Steve and me. Yesterday our dear sweet kitty, Dammitt, died. Our poor girl hadn't been eating very well for a while and seemed to be losing a ton of weight. We made a vet appointment for Monday, February 1st. Steve took her in and it was not good news. They did some x-rays and blood work. It turns out Dammitt had a large mass in her belly area and they weren't sure what it was or what it was attached to. Her blood work came back good, except she was low in protein. The last time she had visited the vet she weighed 15 lbs. On Monday she weighed 11.6 lbs. That is quite a bit of weight to lose on a kitty. They gave us a couple of options, we could do an exploratory surgery to find out where the mass was and see if it was removable or we could do nothing. We opted for the surgery. The doctor said if it was what he thought it was then it was most likely removable. He thought it might be tumor in the intestine. They could remove that part of the intestine and attach it back together. He did mention that he had not seen one that large before. When he started the surgery he said he would call us and let us know whether he thought she had a good chance at survival after the removal of the tumor or if he thought it wiser to not wake her up from the surgery.
They happened to have a spot open in their schedule for yesterday afternoon. We decided to take it and hoped for the best. Well, that didn't happen.
The doctor called and had bad news. The tumor was indeed attached to her intestine but it was also attached to her pancreas. It was about 6 inches x 2 inches in size. He said that it had spread to her lymph nodes.  He could remove it, but it would take quite a bit of recovery and even then he didn't know if it would completely cure it.  He said there might be microscopic bits elsewhere and they would pop up later.
So Steve and I had to make the hardest decision of our lives.  We decided to have them keep her sedated till we could come and then we would have them put her to sleep.  So Steve left work early and I left during my dinner break from Parent Teacher Conferences to go see our little tubby for the last time.  Steve's sister, Carolyn, came along for support.  After spending some alone time with our kitty we called for the doctor to come back in.  He put some more anesthetic into Dammitt's I.V. and said once it was all put in, it would only take about 20 seconds for her to be gone.
When the doctor was finished he let us have more time with her.  Then I unfortunately had to go back to do more conferences.  We decided to have Fluff-a-luff cremated, so that we could bury her up at my grandparent's cabin alongside my dog Whitney.  She was a wonderful cat and best friend to my best friend, so now I would like to share all our happy times with our Fluffykins.
Here is a picture of when Steve soon after he got Dammitt from the Humane Society.  Steve decided to pick her because she had an attitude...she hissed at him!  Apparently she had a cold when he got her and Steve and Dammitt would wake up to crusty boogers all over the place from her sneezes.  
Dammitt was 6 years old so she was Steve's roommate and best friend long before I came along.  But the rest of the pictures are from the last year or so.  Here is Dammitt lying in her most favorite spot...the crook of Steve's arm.  She was almost like a little puppy dog, she would follow Steve from room to room just to be near him.  She would be waiting at the door when Steve got home, and she was an excellent listener.
Dammitt had to suffer through numerous costumes after I came along.  Her favorite by far I think was the antlers and jester collar.  Just look at that face, can't you feel the love oozing out of her?
Here is her Halloween costume.  She is a little monster!
My favorite part about putting her into costumes or sweaters was when she tried to rub them off by commando crawling on the floor.  She was not a big fan.
Speaking of fans, Dammy's leader of her fan club was my grandma Diana.  Here she is talking to Dammitt.  Grandma always said how Dammitt would talk to her.  She would meow and meow when you talked to her.
We decided maybe Fluffy would be more cat-like if we got her a cat condo.  Here she is looking very regal standing at the top.  Of course she couldn't get up there by herself, she wasn't that cat-like.
The top is also where she got put if she was being naughty.  She didn't really like to jump down from that high up, so she often stayed up there for quite a while.
This was my favorite level on the cat condo.  Just look at that fat belly hanging through the hole in the bottom. You might think that is just fur, well you are sadly mistaken.  Sometimes when she would walk really fast her belly would swing side to side.  She was a well fed kitty!
Here are two more.  Just look at that cute face!  We love her so much.  
One time we decided to get her a harness.  I grew up with a dog, so I thought well can't you take cats on walks too?  Apparently not.  Here is what happened when we tried.


Like I said, I grew up with a dog, so cats weren't really my thing.  But Dammitt was the best cat ever.  She would come curl up with you to keep you warm, she would purr even when you walked into the room she was in, she didn't mind when Steve would forget to empty her litter box, she was the best!  She grew on me like mold on bread!  I miss her so very much.  
Here is my favorite picture.  She is just being so Dammitt-like.  She would just plop down somewhere and lay in the oddest positions.  I like to think she was chatting on the phone to her tomcat whilst doing leg lifts to get thinner thighs.
Steve and I liked to rub our face in her belly fur.  We called it the "golden fur", because it was so soft and she never let you touch it willingly.  She sure did put up with a lot though.  Steve usually shaved her in the spring time since she was a long haired cat.  She despised it with a passion, but never put up too much of a fight.  Her meow would be really deep and long.  Steve liked to throw the occasional pillow at her when she looked the most comfortable.  She would be startled then go back to sleeping with the pillow on top of her, or move two steps to one side and flop down again.  I preferred to throw my wet towel from the shower on her.  Oh, we loved her so much.
Here are some pictures from the day before she passed away.





Dammitt was such a beautiful kitty and will be and already is greatly missed.  She was a brave little pussy cat and best friend.
Love you, Dammy!