Amelia June

Wow! What an incredible few months we have had! It has been so busy around here that I have slacked off on our blog, but I'm happy to be back to share our fun adventures!

We will start with the most important and life changing event: BABY Amelia June!

Our sweet baby came into the world only one day past her due date, on July 24th, 2014 at 4:56 PM.
She weighed 6 lbs 2 oz and was 20.5 inches long.

Labor and delivery did not go as planned. Here is a brief rundown--

Brayden and I got food poisoning on the 22nd which made me super dehydrated. This caused me to go into painful labor which led us to the hospital at 3:00 AM the morning of the 24th. As soon as they got me hydrated my contractions stopped, but they saw Amelia's heart rate dropping when my contractions were happening so they told me I wasn't leaving without a baby. Then they broke my water, I got the epidural, pitocin, and... 13 hours after arriving at the hospital... I was ready to push! Amelia had flipped face up and her heart rate was dropping during the contractions. Pushed for 15 minutes, forceps were attempted, annnnnd... C section. I had a panic attack from the epidural making me shaky, and Brayden watched them take her out. She had the cord wrapped around her body a couple of times, which is why her heart rate was dropping so often. Our first family picture is of me laying on the C section table, Brayden in his moon suit, and Amelia swaddled so cute in her blanket. Picture it folks, because you won't be seeing it any time soon ;).

Here are some things I think about when looking back on my first experience having a child:

1. Amelia's birth was yet another trial that adds to my testimony of the Lord's timing. Although the puke and long bathroom trips were uncomfortable for Brayden and I, I am so grateful that I was dehydrated and ended up at the hospital.

2. What a blessing it is to have modern medicine and technology to help get these sweet babies out safely!

3. When the doctor told me he thought a C section was the only way she was coming out, I thought briefly of the fact that I couldn't have as many kids as I had wanted. In that moment, I felt a strong feeling of peace knowing that everything would be okay and the Lord has a plan for us.

4. Having children is the greatest gift we have been given!

Amelia is such a blessing to our family and we have so much fun with her! We love being parents. As hard as it is sometimes at this point in our lives to have such a big responsibility, it is the best thing that has ever happened to us. I'm sure all of you Mommy's out there know exactly what I'm talking about :).

Arizona and....

This past weekend we were so lucky to get to go down to Arizona for a short time. Emily picked us up from the airport Friday afternoon and we met Caleb for dinner at a delicious pizza place (I can't remember the name haha). We then went shopping for a bit and headed to Frost. After getting Frost we went to the Gilbert temple since Brayden and I hadn't seen it yet. Oh my goodness, what a BEAUTIFUL House of the Lord.

Saturday we headed to Grandma's house to surprise her for her birthday. Dan and Crystal's family came to surprise her as well. She was so excited to have the whole family with her for her special day! We had lunch at Grandma's house and then went to "The Dutton Show" which is Grandma's favorite place to be. We then met at Carrabas with the whole family. Then we did some more shopping with Emily and Caleb and watched a movie before going to bed. Our trip ended quickly on Sunday morning when we flew back to Utah.

I just wanted to take a second to thank Emily and Caleb for hanging out with us, taking us shopping, and letting us crash at their place. We have so much fun hanging out with them! Also a big thanks to Mom and Dad for getting us down to hang out with the family for the weekend. And finally a huge thanks to my family for being so great! It made me a little homesick to be in AZ and around everyone again. I love my family so much.

When we got back on Sunday we were exhausted, but the weather has finally been a little warmer than 50 degrees during the day and I wanted to go on a picnic so bad! We made some potato salad and brought marinaded chicken to grill and headed to the park right by our house. Ellie LOVES to be outside and off her leash. She had a blast and so did we! I'm glad we can finally spend some time outside.

Oh, and..... we finally let the cat out of the bag on Sunday and announced that we are having a BABY GIRL! I just hit 21 weeks, and I am starting to feel big and uncomfortable. I feel very blessed to not have morning sickness anymore and that it wasn't ever so bad that I couldn't make it to work. This summer is the time to have babies! I know so many women who are expecting around the same time as me. It's really fun to be able to talk to everyone about their experiences.

We are so excited and so anxious to meet this little girl! Brayden is going to be in another house full of girls! Good thing he has a lot of experience. ;) Anyway, I will write more about baby and pregnancy on my other blog as soon as I get around to it! It's still a busy, busy, busy semester.

I also want to thank Lindsey for taking our fun baby announcement photos! They turned out great!

"Valentine's Day"

As I taught my lesson this past Sunday about choices, I couldn't help but imagine what my life would be like if I wouldn't have made the choice to marry Brayden. When I look back on the past two years with him, I can't seem to think of my life any other way. Brayden has taught me so much about love, patience, forgiveness, happiness, and compassion. He is everything on my "husband wishlist" and much more. I am eternally grateful for the trials we have faced as a team and for the memories we have been able to create.

This Valentine's Day we had Brayden's family in town visiting, so we decided to celebrate on President's Day. I worked until early afternoon and Brayden worked on homework until I got home. I came home to a clean house with the flowers and cards below sitting on the TV stand. We decided to spend our money this year on a fun date instead of getting each other gifts, so it was really sweet of him to do that. And I must add, the card was homemade :). We then took Ellie on a long walk (which I told Brayden I wanted to do).

Then, Brayden took me to a Mexican restaurant called "Maria Bonita" up in Orem. It was absolutely fantastic. I had a friend at work recommend it, and I'm glad! We never would have noticed it. After that we went shopping at a couple stores to let our food settle. Then, Brayden took me to Farr's Fresh Ice Cream which I had been craving for the LONGEST time. We then rented Ender's Game and watched it on our newly mounted upstairs TV. All in all, it was a great Valentine's Day celebration. I am so grateful for Brayden and all that he does for me! He is so busy, yet he always finds time to make sure I am happy. Who could ask for more? I LOVE YOU BRAYDEN!

The Seemingly Uneventful Update

I have been absolutely horrible at blogging lately! But, I have recently been motivated by Sozelle to at least write about something. So, here I am!

Backing up to when I last posted.........

Let's see if I remember all the way back to October. YIKES!

We spent Halloween with our good friends Brennan and Ilce. Decorating cookies, watching Hocus Pocus (since Brayden hadn't ever seen it! I know, crazy.), dressing up last minute, and dressing Ellie up like a football all added up to a great night!

Thanksgiving came and we debated making the trip up to Idaho as we had the previous year, but decided we would save some money on gas and stay at home for the smallest Thanksgiving we will probably ever have! We are so lucky Caitlin is up here in Utah so we were able to spend time with SOME family on Thanksgiving. Caitlin got a free turkey from work for our mini Thanksgiving dinner and it was gargantuan. I don't even think gargantuan begins to describe its size! Let's just say we could have fed all the hobos in downtown Provo with the amount of food we prepared. Luckily, Caitlin invited her friend Cody as well, so we had a little extra company. And, of course, Ellie was able to feast as well.

Then, Brayden finished all of his finals for the semester. Living the poor college student life and not being able to spend much time with my husband, I consider the day after finals are complete a holiday. Quite possibly the best 2 holidays of the year! He had another awesome semester and his grades are going to look great on his dental applications being sent off this summer. Yikes, scary to think about!

Ahhhh Christmas. I start my countdown at day 100 when counting down to our Christmas vacation. I also took my time off from work back in August just to be 100% in the clear to go to ARIZONA!!!!! My favorite place in the whole world!!! Okay, I am exaggerating. But, Utah just doesn't do it for me in the winter. We went down to Tucson a little over a week this year and had so much fun! I need to add- We are absolutely horrible at taking pictures on vacations. This Christmas we actually FORGOT our camera. HA! How does that even happen? So you will need to create your own images in your head as I tell you our Christmas time adventures...

Brayden and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary on the 22nd by going out to B.J.'s (It is a must, since there aren't any in Utah!) and then staying at our favorite place, Ventana Canyon Resort. You must hear what happened while we stayed at this hotel so you can all go there sometime! They are great. Before arriving to the hotel, Brayden attempted to persuade me into letting him try the "$20 trick" (Thanks to Mark who told us it works in Vegas). I told him that he should just try to say "Hey, it's our anniversary. Do you have any complimentary upgrades?" So, he did that and the guy at the front desk upgraded our room to a Suite! And, the "suite" puns continued the rest of the weekend for Brayden. So, our Anniversary was great.

We then spent time with my family through Christmas Eve and went to Mike and Sozelle's through the second half of the week. Highlights of the trip for me were:

Going with my family to the dog park
Getting a pedicure with Mom, Lindsey, and Britney
Having a yummy IHOP breakfast with Alyssa
Playing Catch Phrase with our whole family at Mike and Sozelle's house
Christmas Eve dinner with Brayden's family and mine
Taking family pictures with Brayden's family
Eating at Molina's- I always miss eating there with Miranda in high school
Spending time with Grandma Frassa up in Phoenix
Eating at Pork on a Fork with Mark, Kirsten and the Boys- Thanks again!
Playing "Heads Up" with Kirsten's family

Overall, we had a great trip. We always wish we could spend more time with our family and that we could visit with all of our good friends. This is why we need to move back to Arizona. :)

New Year's Eve... hmm.... I don't exactly remember what we did. Ha! Oh! Yes. We did not stay up until midnight, but we did watch Despicable Me 2 and have yummy dinner. That made a great night for me!

Well, that's all for the Holidays!

Since January 6th (the day Brayden went back to school) we have been so incredibly busy I can't even explain with words. When I work 8-4 Monday through Friday and Brayden is at school from 8-5ish Monday through Friday, it makes for a lot of nights that pass by in the blink of an eye. It has been an uneventful couple months for me since Brayden gets home from school, eats whatever I make, and then does HW until about 11PM every night. The small things are what take up our time. Grocery shopping, laundry, Mutual, Scouts, Presidency meetings, lesson planning, BYU intramural sports (right now is inner tube water polo which is fun!), HOA meetings, making dinners, making sure Ellie gets attention, and keeping the house clean all take up the time we would usually hang out. Darn BYU professors who assume their class is the only class Brayden is taking this semester are RUINING OUR LIVES!!! Just kidding. But really, how is one supposed to be at school/doing homework Monday through Saturday from 8:00AM to 10:00PM and be able to study for the DAT which is coming up in May? Suggestions would be appreciated. I feel so bad for the guy.

Despite our busy schedules, everything always seems to work out. I keep telling that to Brayden hoping to relieve some of his stress, but it is hard to know that things will work out when he doesn't even have time to take showers. Haha. We are so lucky and feel so blessed to have the gospel in our lives. The Sabbath day has given us the time we need together and the blessings we have seen in our marriage up to this point from paying our tithing help us to know that it's okay for Brayden to be putting work behind school. We are learning, this semester especially, that having money to do things is not what brings happiness. When I get to sit down with my husband for an hour and just watch a show or play scatergories (which we really love lately) I am able to see the joy that comes from being together regardless of what we are doing.

Well, that's it. This semester is a rough one, but thank goodness there is only 2 more months left! Halfway there!!!

September! The most wonderful time of the year.

I love September! Why you ask? Well, let me count the ways....

Brayden and I both celebrate our birthdays!
The most beautiful season begins.
Saving more money! (Since we don't get to play EVERY day like we do in the summertime.)
FOOTBALL!!!!!
Our shows start up again! (Yeah, I know, lame. But I am not ashamed, we are avid show watchers.)
We get to whip out the hot cocoa!
Oh, and did I mention....? FOOTBALL!!!!!

The only bummer September brings is Brayden going back to school. He says that this semester is going to make or break it for him, so I try to leave him alone most of the time. Although he still finds a way to spend time with me! He is so great.

Here are some pictures from my favorite month....

Brayden is 24!

Brayden's Birthday activities of choice included, yummy homemade burgers, watching the first kickoff of the 2013 NFL season, and getting Farr's Fresh Ice Cream.

Happy 23rd to me! My Co-workers decorated my office and made me feel so special!

I chose to go to the park and play tennis and football.

I just liked this picture :) It is also blackmail for when Brayden tries to tell people he doesn't like Ellie.

Then Brayden took me to Red Lobster and shopping :) What else could a girl ask for??

The snow came this past week! Eeek! I feel a nasty winter ahead!

Even if we don't make it to anymore BYU games this season, we at least made it to one! Froze our buns off, but well worth it :)

We got a great deal on tickets to the circus through my work, so we just couldn't pass it up! It was great!

Oh yeah, and our house got flooded from a monster storm that hit Provo. So we are living on this hideous linoleum until we can find a good deal! Fingers crossed!

Red Castle Backpacking

We don't have many traditions yet, but one that we do have is an annual backpacking trip. This year Brayden found the most beautiful place on earth to hike! Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, but it was by far the most incredible place in Utah that we have been. It took us 3 and a half hours to get there, but it was well worth the long drive. Our adventure started Thursday night, and ended sooner than planned on Sunday night. The hike was 10 miles long (that includes the bush whacking to our camp site) and we did two day hikes that were each about 5 miles long. So for all ya'll who don't like math, that's a whopping 30 miles. We were quite sore after arriving home, to say the least. We were so excited to come home that we hiked out in 4 1/2 hours... to give you something to compare that to, it took us a full 6 hours to hike to our destination. We were practically running. Anyways... here are our fun pictures!

We hiked next to the river the whole time! Which obviously resulted in Brayden looking for fish the whole time :)

That's right. A cow. This stubborn thing wouldn't move even after Brayden MOOOed at it. So we had to go all the way around.

Wow, I looked so happy at the beginning....

Look how darn handsome my husband is! I just have to say that backpacking would be absolutely horrible without a macho man taking care of business the whole time. Brayden is the best.

See? I told you it was amazing!

That huge thing is Red Castle. All of the lakes are surrounding it.

This was our day hike up to Red Castle Lake.

Again, handsome husband.

I only caught 8 fish....

Brayden caught over 30.... I am catching up! Slowly, but surely.

Tiger trout are so pretty!

Red Castle Lake

This little lake off the side of Red Castle was lots of fun because you could see the fish so clear and they were hard to catch! Smart fish? Who would have thought?

Hahahaha best fish of the trip.

We were trying to show how majestic Red Castle Rock was, but pictures just cannot do it justice!

Can you find me?

Oh, that's right.... We saw Moose!!!! They were so close to the trail and just stared at us until we continued walking.

They must be buddies.

Usually I catch the biggest fish, but this time it was Brayden's turn ;) This thing was huge compared to anything we have ever caught in the Uintas. Brayden was very proud.

Don't worry, we are still alive. I was beginning to wonder if we would survive after bookin' it out of there!