My Life, My Family, Easter and Mother's Day

I can't believe I'm going to be 6 months pregnant tomorrow! I swear it was just yesterday that I was peeing on that little stick and walked out of the bathroom speechless. Now, here I am, only a few months away from welcoming our little baby boy! :)

Although still slightly surreal, the reality that I'm actually going to be a mom is finally starting to sink in now. We have chosen a name for our little guy, which actually ended up being easier and a lot less painful than I anticipated, and we're starting to get ideas and things ready for the nursery. I find myself getting more and more excited to meet him every day. I'm not going to share the name we've chosen just yet, I think I'm going to wait til he arrives. hehe mean I know.

I've been feeling a TON of movement, he moves all the time, day and night. I told Rob I think we're going to have a rambunctious one on our hands and he just smiled at me and said "That's perfectly fine with me". I still sometimes look at this growing baby bump and can't believe there's a little person in there that Rob and I created.

Here are a few baby bump pics taken over the last few weeks.

Easter Sunday

21 weeks 5 days

4/29/11

22 weeks 3 days

On Easter Sunday Rob and I had my family over for dinner, we colored eggs, socialized and stuffed wedding invitations. I can't believe my sister is getting married in 11 days!! I remember when she was 3 and broke her leg by falling off the top bunk bed, she snapped her femur and was in a half body cast for weeks. When she was 6 I was 12 and all she ever wanted to do was play with me and my friends, but being pre-teens we wanted nothing to do with an annoying little 6 year old. As she approached her own pre-teen years I watched her grow and bloom into a beautiful young lady. At 16 she started coming to me for advice on boys and school and friends, it was then that we really started to bond for the first time in our lives and despite the occasional hair pulling and name calling she quickly became my very best friend. At 17 she was the maid of honor at my wedding, the one who stood by me on the most important day of my life, and now, at 21, in less than two weeks, I will be her matron of honor, helping her celebrate the best day her life. I'm so proud of who she has become and have to say that my sister is one of the most beautiful people I know both inside and out.

At the end of April my sister and I took a much needed vacation to St. George where our grandma lives. It was an extremely relaxing trip full of nice weather, sun bathing, shopping, pampering, good food, movie nights and quality time with our awesome grandma. My sister and I had both been extremely stressed over the last few weeks with wedding stuff, pregnancy stuff, photography business stuff and just life in general. So it was really nice to get away for a few days and just relax.

I took my younger brother, Tanner, out to the Miller Motorsports Park to watch the Grand Prix a couple weekends. He got to ride in a mustang on a closed course, watch the races and spend the day with me and Rob. It was fun being able to share that with him and spend some time together.

Yesterday, for Mother's Day, although I didn't get to celebrate much myself, I did enjoy seeing my family as Rob and I went over to my parents and cooked dinner for everyone.

I have to say that I have the most amazing mom in the whole world. My mom has been my rock, my confidant, my listening ear and my superhero. My mom seriously does it all. I often find myself wondering what in the world I would do if I didn't have her in my life. She has saved me on countless occasions and is my cure-all for just about everything. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't talk to my mom on the phone at least once or twice, she is always there for me when I need advice, a second opinion or just need to vent. She always knows exactly what to say, what I need to hear and how to make me feel better. Not only that, but my mom is the one person I can turn to for absolutely ANYTHING. She's my doctor, my shrink, my tech support, my dog sitter, my emotional body guard and my consultant for all things life.

My mom is the person who will sacrifice a vacation to stay home and mail out wedding invitations, or stay up all night helping me with a project despite needing to wake up early the next morning. She will put her priorities on the back burner and go out of her way to help me on a moment's notice. My mom has helped me grow my business, mend my broken hearts, see my true potential and become the person I am today. She has taught me to love, forgive, understand, fight, be ambitious, and never take "no" for an answer.

I don't know if she knows just how valuable she is and how much I truly rely on her. I know I don't tell her enough how much she means to me but I absolutely would not be where I am or come as far as I have, if it was not for my mother and I hope I can become as great of a mother to my children as she has been to me.

I got this quote from the Relief Society Presidency and I really liked it and wanted to share it here...

"Woman is God’s supreme creation. Only after the earth had been formed, after the day had been separated from the night, after the waters had been divided from the land, after vegetation and animal life had been created, and after man had been placed on the earth, was woman created; and only then was the work pronounced complete and good." Gordon B. Hinkley.

~Happy Mother's Day~

IT'S A....

For all of you that are dying to find out what Rob and I are having, I will not keep you in suspense any longer. We are 110% having a little baby....

BOY!!!

I REALLY wanted a boy but for some reason thought I was going to have a girl, so I was super excited when I saw the ultrasound tech put those 3 little letters on the screen...B..O..Y! Rob is super proud to be having a son that he can teach how to play guitar, skateboard and pass on his G.I. Joe collection to.

We haven't come up with any names yet, mainly because we were waiting to see what we were having before we really started thinking about it and the few we've both thrown out there the other person hasn't liked. So, I think we're beginning a LONG journey of naming our first child, Rob likes traditional names where I like names that are a little more unique, so we'll see what we end up coming up with.

The tech was in awe, although after seeing the two of us and our parents, not very surprised, to discover the extremely long arms and legs of our little one. She also said that everything looks very normal and very healthy, which ultimately is what we really wanted to hear.

Below are some pictures of my belly, and our little baby boy. Enjoy! :)

5 months!

Not the best pic, I know, but imagine him laying on his back and his legs are spread. He definitely wasn't shy about showing us the jewels ;)

Vacation Elation?

Though this post will talk mostly about our most recent vacation, it's really an ode to my wonderful husband.

This last week Rob and I decided to take a little mini-vacation to Arches National Park in Moab, UT. Though I've been there a couple of times, I think it's been almost 10 years since I was last there, and Rob had never been. So we figured it would be a good place to go, especially this time of year, when it's not deathly hot and there won't be a ton of people. We also decided we'd add to our trip and spend about a day and half in Arches, then drive to 4 corners monument, where neither of us had been before.

In case you've never been either, it's literally a concrete monument in the middle of nowhere marking the borders of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. But it's kinda cool to be in 4 states at one time.

So the plan was to leave Thursday morning and head to Arches, hike as much as we could that day and finish the trails on Friday, from there we'd drive to New Mexico, and head out to 4 corners Saturday morning, then head home.

Of course, things never quite go as planned....

Wednesday night I started feeling less than 100% and felt like I was coming down with something, being infamous for getting sick almost every time I go out of town, this came as no surprise, but knowing that I had two days of driving and hiking ahead of me, I wasn't too thrilled at the thought of being sick in the process. By Thursday morning I was having really mild body aches and a cough accompanied by slight congestion. But, I took some extra strength Tylenol and powered through it. I got packed and a few hours later than planned, we were on our way to Southern Utah.

I was feeling significantly better by the time we got to Moab, but having left later than we hoped, we got there in time to hike to Delicate Arch, one of the longer hikes, and that was the only hike we accomplished that day. I wanted to get some good photos of the arch and if the light was right, maybe some cool pics of Rob and myself while up there, so with some encouragement from my husband, I decided to bring all my camera equipment along with me. That included my 3lb camera, two light stands, a soft box, a tripod, and a flash, not to mention all my gizmos and gadgets.

Hiking a 3 mile trail with a 480 foot elevation change while congested, coughing and nearly 4 months pregnant, became more of a challenge than I anticipated. But, being as wonderful as Rob is, he carried all of my equipment, plus the backpack full of food, water, batteries and hiking essentials all the way up and back. I won't mention that I didn't end up using half of the gear he so lovingly hauled up there for me...

By the end of the day on Thursday we were both so exhausted we went to bed at around 8 pm. I was starting to feel achy again and I think Rob was feeling the affects of the extra weight he'd been hauling around, kicking in, so we called it a day.

The next morning, after taking some more Tylenol, I was up for more hiking. We started on the first, and one of the easier trails on the road, half way through however, I was feeling the effects of pregnancy fatigue and my sickness setting in once again. After taking a short breather, I'm standing there, feeling sweaty, sick and fat, and my sweet husband looks up at me and tells me how good I look. There's nothing better than when the person you love thinks you look good when you feel your worst. :)

By the time we got back from that hike, we ended up heading back towards the entrance to the Visitor's Center to use the restrooms. While we were there, Rob saw an article about Mesa Verde in Colorado, it's a national park that is filled with Anasazi Indian Ruins. I had been there years before with my family and always knew it was something Rob would love. He suddenly lost his interest in Arch and rock formations and grew increasingly intrigued by the ruins. So, we decided that in my condition, we'd bag the remainder of Moab and head 2 hours South to Mesa Verde.

Once we got there we were slightly disappointed to learn that most of the attractions were still closed for the season so we weren't able to actually walk up to a lot of the ruins. But not all was lost, there was a smaller dwelling we were able to walk up to and a scenic loop we took that allowed us to view all of the cliff dwellings and pit houses in the area. It really was incredible and even more amazing than I had remembered. On our way back, though I was achy and uncomfortable, Rob insisted we stop to get all the pics I talked about wanting because knowing me, I'd regret it later. He was being so supportive and so patient with me, despite my constant discomfort and needing to rest at every corner.

The road to the entrance of Mesa Verde

We had previously booked a hotel in the small town of Farmington, New Mexico, about 50 miles outside of 4 corners and literally the closest hotel to it. We had about an hour and a half drive to the hotel form Mesa Verde, as we got about 18 miles outside of Farmington, dusk had set in and as we were driving along a small highway in the middle of nowhere, three deer jumped out in the road right in front of us. At a speed of 65 mph and literally having no time to react, there was nothing Rob could do but hit the first deer. Luckily, it only barely dented the side of his car, took his side view mirror clean off and knocked his turning signal light out of it's casing, considerably less damage than most people experience when hitting a deer on the freeway. We felt worse for the suffering deer that our little sedan probably didn't finish off, than we did for the car.

The remaining 18 miles were driven in silence as we took in what had happened.

At about 5:25 the next morning I awoke with the miserable realization that my illness had won the battle I'd been fighting the last few days. With terrible body aches, a killer headache, chills, a possible fever, and a nose I could no longer breath out of, my cold had turned into the full blown flu and I felt awful. Being pregnant I'm pretty limited to my medicine intake and had to continue to solely rely on my extra strength Tylenol to get me through the day. Being as close as we were, we decided we'd still visit four corners, then it was home to lay me in my Tempurpedic grave.

Once again, being the loving and supportive husband he is, Rob was at my side and every beck and call trying to help me feel better. He didn't mind the 6 hours of complaining, coughing, moaning, stopping, and constant re-situating I had to do just to be able to tolerate the drive home. We arrived back home at about 3:30 Saturday afternoon but by that evening I was so miserable Rob ended up taking me to the ER where I got an IV of fluids, more extra strength Tylenol and two negative results for both influenza A and B. Since then Rob has been extra wonderful, bringing me food, checking on me every so often, telling me how much he loves me and making sure I'm as comfortable as possible at all times. He even offered to take a sick day at work so he could stay home and take care of me yesterday. It's so comforting to know I have someone who loves me unconditionally and will always be there to make me happy, even and especially when I'm miserable.

In a side not, the good part of our $150 ER visit, was that I got an ultrasound just to make sure everything was still ok with the baby. The last ultrasound I received was very early on in my pregnancy and my baby was merely a blob on the screen, with no visible features and only about an inch long. It was so cool to be able to actually make out it's head, spine, hands and feet. I saw it moving for the first time, which was so unbelievable. It was crazy to watch this thing growing and moving inside me but not be able to feel it and I still hardly have any outside visible proof that there's anything in there. Below are the pictures the doctor printed out for me, as well as my most recent "belly" pic.

I'm 4 months pregnant today, with only 5 left to go, it feels both like it's taken forever to get this far, but at the same time it seems like it was just yesterday that Rob and I found out I am pregnant.

Today is also day 5 of this miserable illness I've been suffering through, though I'm starting to feel somewhat better, I'm by no means ready to get out of bed. I think it's taken all my energy just to write this post.

But that updates everyone on our "vacation" and like I said, a little ode to my husband and just how wonderful I think he is. :)

"Good things come to those who wait"

*Disclaimer: This is a more sentimental and pretty personal blog post compared to what I usually write, it's also kind of long. So if you're not into lengthy mushy blogs, then now would be a good time to stop reading... ;)

Most of you know by now that I am pregnant, but a lot of you don't really know about how it all came to be. (No, this is not a talk about the "birds and the bees", your parents will tell you about that when you're older ;).

This is my personal story about my struggle to become pregnant and how Rob and I finally found out we were going to be bringing a child into this world.

A lot of you that know me well, know that when I got married, having children was the farthest thing from my mind. The thought of having kids at that time in my life was almost a little depressing. For me, it felt like I would be closing a door to my past that I was not yet ready to close and starting a chapter in my life that, at the time, felt like the beginning of the end. Now I know a lot of you are probably thinking that that's a terrible way to think about kids, but let me explain. I got married at 23, an age I never thought I'd be married at. I always saw myself getting married a little older, like 25 at the earliest, but when Rob asked me, I knew it was right and he was the right guy for me so I didn't see a point in waiting. However, because I was getting married younger than I thought I would, I was nowhere near ready to have kids. I wanted to enjoy being young, enjoy married life and for some reason the thought of having kids at that time seemed like a giant weight that would be holding me down and that the sooner I had kids the sooner I would be getting older. It may not make sense to you but it made sense to me and it's really the only way I know how to explain it.

Then, after being happily married for 2 years, and having been all over the country and even to different parts of the world together, something changed. Rob and I had accomplished so much in our first two years, we'd bought and sold our first home, honeymooned in Puerto Rico, celebrated Valentine's Day in Mexico, our Anniversaries in Vegas, Italy and Switzerland, spent birthdays in California and done all kinds of wonderful things together as a couple. Then one day, almost over night, I felt the overwhelming desire to start a family. I started to feel like there should be something more. That Rob and I needed to start sharing our lives with not just each other, but with a family of our own. I wanted children I could teach, and share experiences with.

So, in June of 2009, we decided to start trying to have kids.

For some reason, growing up, I always felt like it would be difficult for me to get pregnant. I don't know why, I never had any complications or diagnosis early in my life that would suggest that, I just always had this feeling that it wouldn't be easy for me. So after months of trying and being unsuccessful, reality started to set in and suddenly my hunch was no longer "just a feeling".

After a year of trying to conceive, I started a long process of tests, and medicines based on nothing more than theories. With everything coming back normal, none of my doctors really knew what was keeping me from getting pregnant. I was constantly being poked and prodded, had some pretty invasive procedures done and was always having to check the calendar, keep track of the time of day, and make sure I didn't miss any of my medications. I was starting to feel like a lab rat with no hope for freedom. Not only was it all pretty physically draining, but everything I was going through was emotionally challenging more than anything. I felt like something was wrong with me, and the frustration of not being able to control my own body began to get the best of me. There were times that I really wondered if I'd be able to have kids at all.

After a year and a half of methods, tests and visits to numerous different doctors, I was diagnosed with "unexplained infertility" (I didn't realize that "I don't know" needed a diagnosis). So in December I was sent to the Center for Reproduction Medicine at the University of Utah where we would decide what the next and best step would be. The different fertility processes started with manual insemination and went up to in vitro and ranged from $350 to $10,000. Needless to say, it wasn't exactly the most exciting road to have to be taking. Once we decided what step we were going to take, the waiting game started. I couldn't start the process until my next cycle, which was supposed to be in about a week or so...

On Christmas Eve we were still waiting...

Then, on December 25th, 2011, Christmas morning, after being "late" for the first time ever, I took a pregnancy test and Rob and I found out we were finally going to be parents. I never had to start any of the expensive procedures, I wasn't on any medication at the time and I had given up watching the calendar. After over a year and a half, somehow, it all just happened on it's own, and according to my doctors I had a 0-5% chance of getting pregnant on my own. We couldn't be more grateful.

I know there are some of you that can relate to this post and I personally know people who have had similar and greater struggles than I have to get pregnant. I'm not trying to compare my story to anyone else's or say that what I went through was harder than anyone's personal struggle. I just wanted to share my journey of patience, faith and gratitude. Rob and I feel so blessed in so many ways and are so grateful for all the support we've received from friends and family.

We are so excited to be parents and I personally am looking forward to seeing how good of a dad I know Rob is going to be. He's already so cute about it, every morning when he leaves for work, he kisses me goodbye, then leans down and kisses my tummy.

I'm 13 weeks today and hardly showing. Here are some photos of my tummy, the first taken when I was 11 weeks, and the second were taken today. Not much of a difference but everyone has been so anxious to see my "bump' that I thought I'd prove that there really isn't much to show....yet.

11 weeks

13 weeks

I've had 3 ultrasounds and heard the baby's heartbeat 3 separate times now. I'm super anxious to find out what it is, but have to wait til the end of March for that. But don't worry, I'll keep everyone posted. :)

Oh wait, it's 2011 already??

So I know I've been a MAJOR slacker on updating the blog lately. I didn't even finish telling everyone about the rest of our New England trip back in October. For some reason, every time I sit down to write, I quickly lose motivation and move onto something else. But one of my resolutions (if you can call it that) is to write more and document more of my life, cause I know all of you are just DYING to know more about my exciting life, right? ;)

Anyway, I know we're already well into February, but I thought the best way to make up for my lack of blogging would be to do a recap of 2010.

I won't be one of those people who goes into full detail about everyt little thing that happened last year, I'm just gonna touch on the highlights and significant moments of the past year.

So here goes...

In January after ringing in the New Year with some of my good friends, Rob and I headed to Reno to see one of his close friends get married. Rob has a lot of really good friends out there and it was fun for him to be able to see everyone, catch up and see his buddy get hitched. I'd have to say, the highlight of the trip for me, was that the church they got married in, shared a parking lot with a Hell's Angels club house....awesome! That's Reno baby.

February marked Rob's parent's 50th wedding anniversary, so as a gift and celebration to them, all his siblings and their families got together in Las Vegas. We did a big Nish family photo shoot, got them a room at the Trump International Towers and had dinner together at the Black Pepper Grill out on Lake Las Vegas. Rob and I even got them a custom made anniversary cake with their wedding photo on it. It was was fun to celebrate and be with the whole family, since he has siblings all over Utah, Vegas and California, it doesn't happen too often.

March isn't ringing any bells for me as being a very significant month last year, so we'll go ahead and skip that one.

April was one of the best months for us as Rob and I lived out two of our big dreams. The first was buying Rob's dream car, a 1967 Chevrolet Chevelle. The second was driving historic Route 66. After months of negotiations, we flew out to Mississippi on April 25th to buy the car and drove it alllll the way back home, taking Route 66 as our main course. It was one of the best trips we've been on, so much fun, so full of history and so awesome to be in a classic car driving a classic Route.

At the end of May, Rob took me to Wendover to see one of my favorite bands in concert, Huey Lewis and the News! As one of my dad's favorites, I grew up listening to them and love them to this day. I'd seen them live once before, at the stadium of fire years ago, but this time was even better! We had 3rd row seats and they sounded just as good as ever!

In June Rob and I celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary by enjoying Sea World in fabulous sunny San Diego. We stayed at a beautiful resort right on the bay. Rob had to go for work so we just decided to make a vacation out of it, hey why not celebrate our anniversary on the company dime?

July was a significant month, after nearly 5 years at Clear Channel, Rob left and started working at the Miller Motorsports Park, a race track out in Tooele, UT. He became the brand manager for their high performance driving schools. He welcomed the change of pace and atmosphere and has been enjoying working with fast cars. In July we also went to Washington to see some of our really good friends, Darin and Jenn and their adorable daughter, Ivy. They own a recreational shop right by the Columbia River so we had a blast kayaking, biking, and paddle boarding. We also watched the boat races that were going on that weekend and I got to take part in a few photo shoots while out there as Darin is also a photographer.

August was Rob's birthday and I also got to go to Bear Lake to do a couple of photo shoots, which was a lot of fun.

In September Rob and I made our second trip to Yellowstone, I celebrated my 27th birthday, and two of my really good friends finally got married. It was a good month. :)

October is when Rob and I went to New England with his parents. We went everywhere starting in Connecticut, going all over Massachusetts, exploring deep into the woods of Vermont and New Hampshire and came back down along the coastline of Maine. It was the perfect time of year as all the fall colors were so rich and vibrant and the weather was perfectly mild. We hit all the historical points including the Mayflower and Plymouth Rock, ate at quaint little cottages in the middle of nowhere, had the freshest lobster around, walked along the sandy beaches of Cape Cod and of course, frequented all the little antique shops along the way. Later in October I also went to Southern California with my best friend, Signe, to visit her dad that lives in Pasadena. I've known her and her family literally my entire life so it was fun to spend some time with them, even if it did rain the WHOLE time.

In November Rob and I both got to go to Las Vegas for work at the same time. He was there for a big car expo and I had a bunch of photo shoots with some long time clients out there. It was fun to be able to be out there at the same time and make our work trips into a little bit of a pleasure trip as well. November is also the month that we added a new addition to our family, little Sugar, a brindle boxer puppy, making our dog count go from 2 to 3. Rob and I had been wanting another boxer for a long time and had recently started looking more seriously. One day as I was coming home from Wal Mart, I pulled out of the parking lot and saw a sign that said "Boxer puppies for sale" they were all brindle and only one was a girl (which is what we wanted). She was way too cute to pass up and the price was just right, so with only a cell phone picture and my word to go on, Rob gave me the ok and I brought her home. :)

After a bunch of traveling it was nice to spend December and the holidays at home with our families. December ended up being the most significant month of the entire year as it was when we found out that I am pregnant! (More on that in an upcoming post)

Ok so this turned out to be a little longer than I anticipated, but I guess it was a pretty eventful year. We feel incredibly blessed every day in so many different ways and we love all of our friends and family and enjoy sharing our lives with you.

Alright, done with the sentimental squishy stuff. I'll try to write more and keep it a little more interesting. Here's to a wonderful 2011! The most life changing year for us yet!