November- sorry it is a long one, pics at the end tho

November was a very happy, yet stressful month for us.  Exactly one week after we moved into our house, I went into labor.  If you don't care to read about the details, skip the next paragraph, otherwise here is what happened.

I woke up at 5 am with what I now realize were very minor contractions.  Everyone had been asking me if I was having any pre-labor contractions and I never knew if I was or not.  I can now say I didn't have any contractions before going into labor.  They were about 5 minutes apart and strong enough that I couldn't really sleep through them, so I got up and ate breakfast, checked my emails and stuff to distract me.  After a while I decided to go lay down again (I hadn't woken up Thomas yet because it was so early) and around 8 am my water broke.  That woke him up and we decided it was time to tell our parents that I was in labor.  It was also at that time that my contractions started getting more intense and closer together.  We left for the hospital at about 10:30 with the contractions about 2 minutes apart.  I had planned on trying to go without an epidural but I wasn't sure what my pain tolerance would be, so I wanted to get to the hospital before they got too bad.  Once we arrived, they checked me and I was at a 5/6 so I got into a tub and that helped ease the intensity of the contractions.  After an hour or so, the water had cooled off and they were coming about every minute and getting really intense.  I think it was a combination of being in pain, cold and wet, but my whole body started shaking and I couldn't stop.  This prevented me from being able to relax inbetween contractions, which made me decide to get an epidural.  I have always been scared to have a needle that big going into my spine, but everyone told me I wouldn't care when I was in labor.  Turns out it wasn't that painful. I don't know if it was because I was already in a lot of pain or if it really doesn't hurt that bad, but I was grateful for it!  It took away all the pain in my stomach, which allowed me to relax, but almost simultaneously my pelvis started to ache and didn't ever stop.  They even tried giving me an extra dose of the epidural medicine but that didn't work.  Turns out the epidural was only working on half of my body, so I guess i can claim that I did it half naturally. :)  By 2 pm I was fully dilated but she hadn't dropped at all so i had to push for 2 hours.  At 4:30 pm, Ember Jane came into the world at 7 lbs 7oz, with lots of hair and very alert. I don't think she closed her eyes for the next 2 hours.  It was/ is very surreal to think that she used to be inside of me and that she is mine.   I am so grateful for her and that everything went as well as it did.  The only thing that wasn't quite so pleasant was that for the next 2 weeks, I could barely walk or sit because my tailbone hurt so bad. 

On top of it all, one week later, Thomas got the stomach flu and because he couldn't stay hydrated, ended up in the hospital with pancreatitis for a week. The hardest part was that I couldn't be the one to take him in and stay with him because we didn't want Ember exposed to the germs at the hospital. Thankfully, his mom and other family members were able to keep him company and watch out for him most of the time.  I was also able to visit a couple of times for a couple of hours while my mom watched Ember.  Speaking of my mom, she thought I gave her a run for her money when I was a baby, little did she know I would push those limits 28 years later.  I wouldn't have made it through that week if she hadn't been so generous with her time.  Thank you dad and Torie for lending her to me so often!

Anyway, Thomas got out of the hospital and 4 days later it was Thanksgiving!  We spent it with my side of the family and I think it was the first time I actually did my hair and put on real clothes that month, ha!  Also, like before, I didn't have the frame of mind to take pictures, but it was fun watching people hold Ember. 

In leiu of Thanksgiving, here are only a few things I am grateful for:

-An AMAZING husband who has cleaned and organized our house and who is wrapped around his daughter's little finger :)

-Fantastic parents and in-laws who were there when we needed them most

-Wonderful relatives who also offered and gave support to us in our time of need

-A BEAUTIFUL little girl who makes my life more meaningful every day.

-My knowledge of a kind and loving Savior and Heavenly Father, and the plan of Salvation

Sorry this was such a long post, but here are a few pictures to make it worth the read:

 She loves sleeping with her hands right by her face, which makes swaddling her a battle sometimes :)

 She didn't like her first bath, but as long as I don't wash her hair, she loves them!  She also loves stretching her legs just like they are posed in this picture, it is hilarious!

Just a favorite picture of mine of her sleeping :)

September-October

September was a calmer month as far as activities go, which is a new thing for me.  Usually I am just getting back into the swing of things in my classroom, still slaughtering my students names and figuring out who can't sit next to whom.  It was nice not to be stressed out, but I missed my teacher-friends.
 
Well, I take it back, I was a little stressed out as I spent most of my time on the phone trying to work out the kinks that had happened with our home loan, calling a million different people but never getting anywhere.  A few lessons I learned were: 1.  Missionaries, if you ever have medical bills while serving, make sure you give them your home address, not a mission one because you will move and the bills will never get to you and they will go to collections (without you knowing about it).  2.  When you are applying for a home loan, they check to see where all of your money is coming from.  Apparently, depositing paychecks is a bad thing and can hold up your loan (until you send them copies of the check as proof that it wasn't "gifted money").  Who knew earning money while you are applying for a loan was a bad thing! 3.  I am the luckiest girl to have a grandpa who is a savvy laywer and a broker.  We would not have gotten into our house without him!

On a positive note, I did get to go to the Brigham City Temple Open House.  The peace and spirit that you feel there is awsome, as well as the little, beautiful details that decorate the inside of the temple.  Here we are outside.

Back in July when we hiked to the rop swing, we were with Thomas's family.  We thought it was so fun that we took my family on the hike.  This time was a little more difficult for me because I was 7 and a half months pregnant but I made it!  We forgot to take a picture of me swinging, but I got a better shot of Thomas :) 

At least the month ended on a good note.  A former coworker of mine offered to throw me a baby shower, which provided the opportunity to see a bunch of my teacher-friends that I had been missing.  I forgot to get a picture of all of us, but I loved every minute of it and am so grateful to know such wonderful girls!

October went by really fast, but also really slow.  It was the last month of my pregnancy and while most women are READY for the baby to come, I was ok that she was taking her sweet time.  Our loan process was still hung up and I wanted to be in our house before she arrived.  Thankfully, I had a few baby showers to disract me.  I still have thank-you's to deliver but I have to say how thankful I am to everyone for the advice and gifts I received.  It was very humbling to see how many people were excited for and supported us.  I hope to be able to return the favor.  Like before, I forgot to take pictures of each shower (not that surprising if you were around me while I was pregnant, my brain was mush!). 

Finally, on the 25th we were able to move into our house!  Thank you again to all who helped us, we owe you big time.  I am especially grateful because I couldn't do anything being 9 months pregnant.  Somehow I didn't go into labor during it all, but it wasn't that far off!  Here are a few pics of the house.

I have to note that this picture was taken from the appraisal, so the room doesn't quite look like this anymore.  I would have taken a picture of what it looks like now, but it isn't as neatly organized :)

Now that I have caught up on life before Ember joined us, I can now write about her arrival. :)

July-August

The 4th of July was a fun day.  We spent the morning exploring a canyon in Centerville that we heard had a rope swing somewhere along the trail.  It took a while, but we finally found it and it was worth it!

 

This pic shows how high off the ground we got and evidence that I swung!

This was the clearest picture i got of Thomas, I am not very good at action shots. 

Later that night we went to the West Bountiful fireworks show (very short but fun). Prior to the show we played some frisbee.

Thomas had to lunge a little more than his hamstring liked :)

Later that month we were lucky enough to be able to participate in a ward trek at Martin's Cove, WY.  Unlike the pioneers that traveled through here in the winter, we did it in the dead of summer, so our experience was slightly different than theirs, but I still got a good feel for what they went through.  Everyone that participated in the trek was supposed to walk for one of their ancestors.  I just happened to have one that crossed the plains pregnant, just like I was, so I got a really good taste for what it might have been like for her.  I was just shy of being 6 months pregnant and everyone was very concerned about me staying hydrated.  I was actually more worried about Thomas staying hydrated since dehydration causes pancreatitis attaks for him.  I am happy to report that we both made it through just fine though!
 

 

We are at the memorial honoring the four men who helped the saints cross the river.  I wish you could see the detail of the faces of all the statues, there is such a sweet spirit here.

After trekking around all day, we went straight to the river to cool off and it felt WONDERFUL!  Thomas and my dad had lots of fun swimming around in the water like water snakes, ha ha.

 

I didn't care that I was still in all my clothes, in fact, no one did. 

 

The youth were in charge of getting the handcarts to and from camp and we were in charge of the youth, so we got to participate in pushing the handcarts the 3 miles each way. 

Before we left Wyoming, we visited Independence Rock. It is a really cool, huge dome shaped rock that you can climb to the top of and see all the valley around you.  We hadn't climbed to the top yet in this pic, but don't we look excited?

The finale to July was a girls weekend with my college roomates.  We lived together the whole time we were at college and hadn't all been together in years.  It was my turn to host, so they all came to Utah and we spent a few days in a hotel, traveling around the Salt Lake City area.  It was so refreshing to talk to them in person and just enjoy their company. 

We took a tour of the conference center and they took us up to the roof.  The view was really cool!

Doin what we do best, eating out! ha ha ha, yum.

We also spent a lot of time window shopping at City Creek.  The window roof overhead really kept things pleasant even though it was really hot outside.

 
While waiting for our conference center tour, we listened to a live organ recital...... I was tired and apparently organs soothe me to asleep :)

Thanks for coming out girls! I loved every minute of it and hope to be able to do it again sooner rather than later.

August was also a busy month.  We went to Yellowstone, I went to Portola,CA to visit where my mom grew up, and after spending every free minute I had house hunting, we finally found a house we liked and started the loan process.

Yellowstone was a little different for us this year than in years past.  We camped in Grant, close to the lake so we could spend a lot of time fishing.  Unfortunately, the fishing was pretty horrible, until the day we left (of course!) It was still a lot of fun and we loved being in such a beautiful place. 

These are probably 2 of the 4 fish caught the entire trip, ha. But it made catching them all the more exciting!

 

This is a picture of the walkway that lead to our little apartment that we stayed in when i went to Portola with my mom, sister and grandma. 

The girls :)

There isn't a whole lot to see in this pic, other than how beautiful it was.  It was like this wherever we went!

 

Another pretty view

I thought the trains were loud in West Bountiful, I was wrong.  I took this pic to capture how close the train tracks were.  They came by early in the morning and late at night and blew their horn every time, sometimes the trains were only minutes apart. 

I realize now, looking back, that I traveled a lot in July and August!  It was kind of a last hurrah because I no longer am able to just take a trip at the drop of a hat. 

May-June

May was probably the craziest month of the year.  6 of our immediate family members have birthdays in the month, our anniversary happens, school ended (for both of us), and this year we decided to add moving onto our list. 

Not only did school end, Thomas graduated!!!!!

 

The next day, I participated in a 5k with my in-laws.  It was cloudy and windy and cold but we had fun! Here is everyone getting ready.  I got a really good taste of how out of shape I am.  Sure, i could blame the fact that I was the slowest one out there on being 4 months pregnant, but in reality, i would have been the slowest regardless.

Me with my in-laws (except Mary cuz we forgot to take a pic at the race).

For Torie and Devin's b-day we went horseback riding up in Heber and it was pretty cool!



 

 

You can't really tell by this pic, but Thomas's legs are too long for the horse he was riding so his knees got really sore from the ride.  He made one good lookin cowboy tho!

I know the pic is far away, but it makes me laugh every time because it sums up Devin's experience.  His horse WOULD NOT stay on the trail and kept going off to the side to eat the grass.  Every time I turned around he was battling with the horse to keep going, it was hilarious.



 

 

So, 5 days after graduating,Thomas started his new job at an engineering company in South

Ogden.  We still lived in American Fork and couldn't leave because I was still teaching.  So he moved up to West Bountiful to live with his parents during the week (cutting down his commute time), coming down to A.F. with me on the weekends.  I am glad he got the job but that left me, 4 months prego with no energy at the end of a full day of teaching, to start packing up our house. The tricky part was that 90% of our stuff was going into a storage unit until we found a house to buy, so i had to really think about how to pack things (which isn't easy when your brain is foggy from being prego).  On top of all of that, I also had to start cleaning out my classroom before the last day of school.  Life was just a little hectic.

This is us after a full day of moving and cleaning.

It was very bittersweet to leave Mountain Ridge.  On the one hand, it took a lot of stress off my shoulders to know I woulnd't have to go back to work the following school year with baby on the way and a new state core to try and teach.  But on the other hand, I LOVED teaching and interacting with my coworkers every day.  The faculty there is the best and I miss them every day!

This is my next-door teacher. :) She and I started at the same time and taught next door to each other the whole time we were there.  I owe much of my success to her (and to my mentor whom I don't have a picture of), I wouldn't have made it past the first year if she hadn't been there. 

A student made this for us and we loved it so much we hung it in my co-worker's classroom.  See, our classrooms were right where two hallways met, which meant twice the noise, so we would stand outside our doors and strongly urge kids to get to class.  :)  Good times.

All in all, May was a good month but we were very sad to leave our neighbors and ward and friends.  I will always treasure the friendships I made while living there and recommend the area to everyone.

June:
I don't remember much about what happened in June, but it was definitely less busy.

One of the highlights was that we found out we were having a girl!  I know Thomas had said he wanted a boy, but he never once looked disappointed when he knew it was a girl.  In fact, he was so excited that the next day he stopped at the store and bought a little onesie for her :) 

I also felt her move for the first time on Father's day.  She must love her dad a lot because I hadn't felt a thing until she kicked that day. 

We ended the month on a fun note, Thomas's family got together up Cottonwood (the family property) and we spent the day playing in the river, moving rocks around to make a little swimming hole. 
Ok, really it was him, his brothers and Sarah that moved the rocks around while the rest of us watched the kids :)

 

All in all it was a good couple of months!  

March to April

March and April were very busy months.  To kick it off, my Grandma Dee had to have surgery to remove a cancerous (sp?) tumor in her colon.  Luckily they were able to get it all and it hadn't spread anywhere, so she doesn't have to do any treatments or anything.  Yea!

This is us in the waiting room. 

Like I mentioned in the previous post, we had just found out I was pregnant and went in at 8 weeks to see our very first ultrasound.  The tech was really sweet and even put captions on the pics.  This is the best picture of the pic I could get. I don't know why it uploaded it vertically and I couldn't figure out how to change it.  It says "yay" and the baby is the oval shaped blob in the middle :)  We were told she was about the size of a grain of rice.

At the end of March, we celebrated Thomas's birthday.  We decided it would be the easiest way to tell both of our parents that I was expecting, although credit for the idea of how to tell them goes to Curtis and Krystal (they found out sooner than others because we saw them on an almost daily basis, which made it impossible to hide).  Anyway, we invited our parents down and told them we wanted to play pictionary.  We don't usually play games when they visit (lack of time), but they shrugged it off and humored us.  Well, when Thomas's turn came he pretended to look at a card, but we had already decided his phrase was going to be "Halloween baby".  He drew pictures of pumkins and they were quick to guess "halloween", then he pulled out the ultrasound pic and pointed to it.  My brother Devin caught on right away and shouted out "No Way!"  No one had said "baby" yet so the first words out of my mom's mouth were "Is that a picture of Thomas's hernia?"  I thought she was kidding so I started laughing, but then I saw that she was serious so we handed her the picture to give her a closer look and then she asked "Is this a joke?" (getting more excited but also still cautious in case it was).  We said nope!  And then all chaos broke out.  Then a few seconds later I hear her exclaim "Torie we did it!" That stopped everyone's conversations and everyone looked at her like, "Um, pretty sure you didn't..........."  She quickly explained that she and Torie had been praying for it every night for months, so their prayers had worked!  We all laughed and laughed.  In the meantime, Thomas's parents hadn't really said anything and I was sure they were furious at us for telling them the way we did.  Turns out they were both just in shock and it took them a few minutes to snap out of it.  Once they did though, they were just ask excited as everyone else :)

1 week later tho, and Thomas was in the hospital with his typical (but not any less painful)panreatitis.  I think the biggest trigger was being stressed out about finding a job.  But add on the stress of a baby on the way and missing school from his hernia surgery, and you have the perfect recipe.   Thankfully, it wasn't a long stay.  In fact, he rebounded much sooner than he usually does because he didn't have to go as long without food.  It wasn't the best timing tho because I was supposed to throw a bridal shower for my cousin that very weekend, so it fell into my mom's lap (I owe her big time for taking over!) 

 

My brother made this, isn't it awesome?            This is us at the bridal shower, a closer look and you can see my aunt on the computer screen behind us

My biggest challenge during this time was how tired I was.  I never got morning sickness but I was always exhausted!  In fact, I was so tired from no sleep at the hospital that I taught a math concept to my students completely wrong.  It wasn't a big concept but a few days after the fact, when they were all doing it wrong, I asked them what had happened and they told me that I had taught them to do it that way.  I was so embarrassed and vowed to pay more attention while I was teaching!

April was filled with lots of family get-togethers, the first being a belated Easter with the Hunts.  Everyone came down to American Fork and we went to a cool park that is made of wood and is huge!  We ate lunch and then let all the nieces and nephews go on an Easter Egg/basket hunt.  Since we didn't have any little ones running around, Thomas and I got to hold the two babies, which was really fun. :)  We also found out that Thomas's sister was expecting and acutally due about a month before me! 

I LOVE all of the kids faces in this one, couldn't resist putting it on here. ha ha ha ha!

 

Don't know why it smashed the pic, but these are the babies we got to hold. :)

 

Next came my cousin's wedding.  This time I remembered my recommend (I had forgotten it at another cousin's wedding and didn't get to go) and it was a beautiful ceremony.  They make such a cute couple and we all had a great time!  Unfortunately, Thomas was taking a final and couldn't make it to the ceremony. 

 

This was the only pic I got of the happy couple but I like it :)

 

Watch out boys!

 

My favorite pic because my grandpa is trying to sneak away, ha ha ha ha!

 

 

Well, that pretty much sums up those two months, but dont' worry, May was about to begin :)