Lately. Well, actually, the last half of a year.

2014 has been an eventful year for us! Since my last post was in March, we will start from there. :)

In May we went down to Arizona for Morgann's graduation and to spend some time with family. It is so nice to have Brayden out of school in April so we have such a long summer! It makes up for the lack of fall and spring breaks. 

Morgann's Graduation was great! We are so happy for her and can't wait to be writing her on her mission soon here! She was called to the Charleston, West Virginia mission and reports December 31st, 2014. She is going to be a fantastic missionary! 

While in AZ, my family and friends threw me a Baby Shower. It was so much fun and so great to see everyone for a bit.

A few weekends later my family and friends in Utah threw a shower that was also so much fun!

Thanks to all those who helped out with all of Amelia's clothes, books, toys, blankets, etc. We feel so blessed to have all that we do for her! She is grateful too, even though she can't quite express it. ;)

Brayden and I had to get some camping, fishing, and hiking out of our systems before I felt too big to move! The last time we went camping was at 34 weeks and the last time we went hiking was 36 weeks. After that, I figured it was best to slow down a bit! We love the outdoors!

We had some maternity pictures taken at 36 1/2 weeks by our friend Rebecca, who is so awesome! They turned out so good. Here are a couple of my favorites...

We had so much fun getting Amelia's Nursery done. We debated leaving our second bedroom as a guest room and just having Amelia sleep in our room until she was a bit older. I just couldn't do it! I feel like half the fun of being pregnant with your first is getting to set up a nursery. We sold the bed and all the furniture in the guest bedroom and painted it tan like the downstairs. We found so many great deals on furniture and only had to buy the crib, rugs, and shelves from the store. Yard sales and KSL are my favorite! We also had fun making a mobile to go above her crib.

Our final adventure before Amelia showed up was going to the Strawberry Days Rodeo. We have gone the past two years and love it! We mostly show up for the Strawberries and Cream ;).

Amelia was blessed August 24th. This made her exactly one month old. We weren't planning on blessing her that early, but it was the best weekend for everyone to make it. Our house was full, but we loved having everyone here and getting to share that special moment with family and friends. Thanks to all who made the extra trip to be here!

Amelia was able to wear the blessing dress that Kirsten, Emily, Lindsey and I wore when we were blessed. Thank you for keeping it safe Grandma Frassa! I thought it was so cool for her to get to wear that!

Our birthdays this year came so fast! For Brayden's Birthday we went to Five Star BBQ which we had been wanting to try for some time. For dessert we ate Ben and Jerrys while watching a movie. Usually Brayden gets something involving fishing from me for his birthday, but since he had been mentioning Cardinals attire constantly I decided to let him pick out a Cardinals shirt. We didn't take many pictures, but here is one from before we went to dinner.

For my birthday Caitlin and Dallin were so nice to take Amelia for a little while so Brayden and I could go to dinner at Cracker Barrel. I had been craving country fried steak for quite some time! Then we went shopping and got Rita's for dessert. Brayden got me flowers and Nike Frees and gave me cute notes throughout the day :). I am so lucky! We also learned Amelia LOVES balloons.

CAITLIN AND DALLIN GOT MARRIED!!! We are so happy for them. They make such a great couple and we love Dallin! He fits right in with Brayden's family. It's fun living close to them here in Provo. We went down to the wedding in Arizona and stayed with Emily and Caleb. Speaking of Emily, she is PREGNANT! We are so excited that Amelia will have a cousin so close to her age! Okay, back to the wedding. They were married in the Gilbert Temple, which is absolutely breathtaking. Caitlin looked gorgeous and the wedding was beautiful! Amelia did great with 24 hours of driving within 3 days and only being 7 weeks old.

Sozelle and the girls came up to Utah for Fall Break and we had a blast! We are so grateful that they were able to tend Amelia for a week. I know she loves being able to stay home. We went hiking, shopping, fishing and walking. We also watched conference, carved pumpkins, did sealings at the Provo Temple and hung out. It is always fun to have them around!

Now that Amelia is past 3 months old, we feel more comfortable taking her places. It is so much easier to run errands, go on walks/hikes, have her at church, and have her in the colder weather. We didn't go as far as we hoped on our hike during fall break, so we went back the next weekend with Cody, Breaelle, and their family. It was lots of fun having them with us. I have a feeling Grayson and Amelia will be good buds!

We headed to the farm this year for Halloween and finally got to attend our trunk-or-treat! We have always worked or had other things going on, so we are glad Amelia got to go to her first trunk-or-treat. Our ward is so awesome. It was a great turnout! We didn't snap a picture of Ellie's cow costume, so this is as good as it gets!

Finally, here are some updated pictures of our little angel baby.

Well, that catches us up to date! Elder Bednar came to our Stake Conference today and we got to sit in the 4th row which was pretty awesome! It's kind of funny how you get excited when an Apostle looks you in the eye while he is speaking. They are basically celebrities!

Day to day our lives are crazy and incredibly busy, but overall we love life. Amelia is perfect and we are so happy Heavenly Father sent her to our little family! Now we are counting down the days to Christmas break!

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 :).