Saturday, December 27, 2014

Baby BOY!!

Yesterday Daniel and I received our last, and probably most favorite Christmas gift, finding out the gender of our baby.....it's a BOY!!!  
I was super nervous all week waiting for the appointment just wanting to hear the heart beat of the baby and know it was okay and healthy.  As I go through this experience knowing the baby is healthy and safe has definitely been the biggest concern and most mind occupying thought.  It's amazing how you feel so inadequate to be a mother to a new child but your instincts take over and you can feel that you are truly being prepared by a greater power to help you take care of his child. I find myself so worried and wanting to be so careful so that the baby is taken care of.
 The doctor called that morning and said she had to go into an emergency surgery and they were going to have to move my appointment up to earlier, I was dying!  Earlier would have been nice, but Daniel had work until the afternoon and we were trying our best to schedule it with him there.  He has been so wonderful to come to all my appointments with me, I have been so grateful he has been so excited and supportive through the whole process.  He has heard and seen a lot of new and crazy things over these past months and has stepped right up to the plate.  We finally got things worked out with the schedule and Danny was able to make it to the appointment.  
I was convinced at the beginning along with my sister Hailey that it was a little girl.  But as the weeks continued I honestly had no idea!  Danny and the rest of the family guessed a boy, so somehow everyone else knew!  The nurse doing the sonogram found the gender pretty quick and said " do you know what that means?" pointing to the picture on the screen, and immediately I was like, "ah its a boy!"  I was genuinely so happy and overwhelmed with so much joy!  haha the funniest part of the whole experience was my sweet husband couldn't sit still for the life of him!  Ha, he was recording the whole thing on his phone, taking pictures of the screen, and standing about 1 centimeter away from the screen. I had to beckon him over a couple times to enjoy the moment with me and hold my hand. I was getting a kick out of it! The nurse had a hard time showing us images of the baby because he kept moving around, "This baby is an active one!" she would say.  That made Danny such a proud dad, he was yelling at the screen, "Thats my boy!" haha at one point, Danny was saying "oh look he is doing some abs, good job son, keep moving!" haha I was cracking up.
It was such a fun day for us, one of the happiest moments along with a couple others I have ever experienced.  We shared the news that night with a fun little skit over Skype with our families :) Enjoy the pictures, and continuous updates about our sweet little boy!











Skyping with both families 

Doing our Skit 

"It's a pink Mustache!  Must be a girl...girls don't have mustaches" 




After enough teasing we finally opened the box and let the balloons reveal the secret! 






Friday, December 26, 2014

A Very, Merry Christmas!

Danny and I spent our second year as a married couple together, just the two of us,  in Kansas City this year!  For those of you who were with me last year, we spent our Christmas day in a hotel room and most of the day was apart from our husbands....so being in a home and having each other for the whole day was complete happiness.   We had such a fun day together!  We woke up (later than i would have liked, sitting in bed at 6:30 anxiously waiting or Danny to wake up...I eventually got him up around 7:30 with a back rub...the only way to his heart haha)  He continued to make the anticipation grow as he finished some last minute wrapping. Its always funny to surprise each other when living in the same house, it seems near impossible at times.  We tossed around the idea of one of us setting up our gifts in the shower and the other in the front room haha but we made it work and I covered his gifts up with a large blanket so it was all hidden while he put my gifts out.  It was pretty hilarious but it had to be a surprise!  Before we could enter the living room, however Danny has taken on the tradition of his dad which I love " No one passes this way by me until they answer my questions three" We then each take turns asking questions to each other, which must be answered honestly:) I found myself gigging like a little girl and totally getting a kick out of it.  One thing I love most about Danny is that he has such a sweet childlike heart; it makes each day nothing short of ordinary or boring. We eventually made it to the living room and we unveiled his gifts and we exchanged what we had given to each other.  He was so thoughtful and brought me to tears as I saw how much he had wanted to make it a perfect day for me. 
As always it isn't easy being away from the large crowds of family members but I did much better this year than last.  I genuinely did feel happy to be in my home celebrating the day with just Danny and me. As I continue to grow each day  and learn with Danny, I learn that what matters most is that Danny and I are together and supporting each other.  We have spent enough time apart that  we both realize that it is always a special treat and blessing to be together. Danny did such a great job to make Christmas special for me, and as funny as it sounds it really felt like Christmas day!  Ha, sometimes I feel like its not a real Christmas unless I'm back to my old ways of Christmas with my 4 other siblings, same traditions, same house, etc.  But it was truly a great day filled with happy memories and thoughts of our savior.  
Thank goodness for Skype and technology we almost felt as if we were with our family for part of the day!  We skyped my family as well as Daniel's as we opened gifts back and forth from each other, tears were shed, yes, but they were honestly happy and grateful tears (being pregnant definitely doesn't help either! ha) Along with skypeing we had the wonderful chance to Skype my younger brother Tanner, who is serving a mission for our church in Tampa, FL.  He looked so great!  He is reaching the last leg of the mission so he is working on enjoying every last moment he has and achieving his last goals before his experience comes to an end.  I am always so grateful that the church allows the boys to call their families on Christmas day, just shows how special of a day Christmas is.  He has been such a beacon of truth and dedication I have loved learning from all his experiences, and am proud of all his growth and service. 
The day was spent relaxing, playing, we went to see "Out of the Woods" movie, kind of crazy! It was a very fun musical with a great storyline, it was almost two movies put together so it got a little long, but for the most part we enjoyed it.  We spent the second half of our day with our favorite family here in KC.  The Chambers ( I really do need a whole post dedicated to them) to sum it up, they have taken us in, in every sense of the word while moving out here.  From letting us live in their basement while finding a place to live, to helping us figure our lives out everyday.  They have offered us everything and continue to treat us as their own.  We truly love them and have been so blessed to meet them and call them our dearest friends. We spent the night with them playing games, and eating delicious food :)  We also spent Christmas Eve with them, exchanging gifts, eating an amazing dinner, and reading the accounts of our Saviors Birth.  I was so happy to be in a home and surrounded by good friends that night.  Regardless of where you are, Christmas to me is always about being with all the people you love and if you can't be with your immediate family you find those around you and come together. 
The day slipped through our fingers faster than we would have liked but it was a day where the world seemed to stand still for a moment.  No work, no stores, just each other and the quietness of the day.  It truly is a special day that the whole world, regardless of your beliefs can agree that something special happened that day long ago and that everything needs to be shut down and it needs to be recognized.  I'm grateful to look back on the early life of our Savior and see his meek and humble example to the people he served and all those he loved.  May we each start our days with him as our prime example.   I know he lives, I know the wiseman and the shepherds sought to find him knowing he was the king of kings; a king the rest of the world wouldn't understand.  I know that each of us can continue to be the wise men and seek him still.  Merry Christmas!

Chambers Family 







Christmas Ornaments for the year 

First real Christmas Tree 
My biggest and most prized sewing project :) 







Cutest care package I did ever see! The amazing Jill Halford responsible for this one...sending snow to KC




Casualties of Christmas Day ;)