The greatest decision

Today marks the three year anniversary of the day I received my endowments. I still feel like it was just yesterday that I was sitting inside those beautiful walls surrounded by friends and family. I remember being a little nervous because there was so much to learn and so much I didn't know. My Aunt Genae was my escort and between her and the sweet temple workers, I never felt alone. They stayed with me every step of the way and made me feel like a princess. 

Typically when you go through the temple it is because you are about to leave on a mission or get married. Well, I was preparing for a mission when things got interrupted with an engagement instead. I'm not complaining. I kept the same endowment date I had set for the mission even though it was a whole month before my wedding date. I remember this was a hard thing for the stake president to agree to. Understandably, his biggest concern was that the wedding could be called off or that my future spouse and I would fall into the evil temptations that surround you the closer you get to doing something so spiritual. 

I reassured him that if the wedding was called off I would resume my mission papers and that if the wedding was still on, my future husband would not even be in the same STATE again until the wedding day. This settled his nerves and he let me keep the same date.

I remember sitting in the room waiting for the session to start. I had butterflies and was excited. I had already been there an hour before my friends and family arrived, doing other temple ordinances in preparation for the actual endowment session. A feeling of peace and comfort surrounded me, literally like I was wrapped in a fuzzy blanket. I kept thinking "how lucky am I that I get to be here?"

It is a day I will never forget. In the month leading up to our wedding, I was able to go back to the temple 4 different times by myself and really learn and enjoy the peace that was there. I was able to watch one friend receive her endowments as well as another friend be sealed for time and all eternity to her husband.

 Then a month later it was my turn.

I still cry ( a lot) when I go back to the temple. Its always at the same time. The Celestial room is the closest thing to heaven on earth. It is a beautiful place for meditation and prayer to our Heavenly Father. It is peaceful and feels like home. It's here where I cry the most. I watch families greet one another with tears in their eyes from the joy that they share. I imagine meeting my family in heaven with open arms and all dressed in white. I am grateful for the knowledge that because of these temples here on earth I am able to be sealed to my husband for time and all eternity. To know that my children will be sealed to us and we are a forever family. That they will have the example of us as their parents and to raise them to strive for a temple marriage as well. I am blessed for the daily remembrance and protection that my garments provide me. I am grateful to be able to share my testimony with others. I am thankful that when my life is hectic and I feel like there is nothing I can do, I can go to the temple and receive guidance and comfort with my trials.

This day I hold dear to my heart. It is one of the most special days of my life I will never forget. I am so glad I made the decision to be a member of  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Welcome Home Elder Lyman

Finally the last Lyman boy returns from the mission field. 

We are so proud of Josh. Colorado was lucky to have him for the last 2 years, and we are lucky to have him as our brother for the rest of eternity. 

Notice Mom's "death grip" on Josh's arm. She's not letting him out of her sight! :) 

All of the brothers reunited again. 

Max and Fin were so excited to see Uncle Josh again, Maizy on the other hand wanted nothing to do with him and just kept saying "I no like him." 

But you can't blame the girl, when he left she was only 6 months old. She had no clue who he was. 

To all the Prego's in my life.

It's that time of year again where I compile my list of all the pregnant women in my life. You may remember last year having an insane number of pregnant friends, somewhere in the 20+ range. Well this year I believe we are right about the same with the baby boom.

 So here is the rundown:

Ashley S- Boy

Lindsay H-

Nicole A-

Rachel G- Boy

Heidi N- Girl

Christie R- Girl

Alissa S- Boy

Meagan E= 

Brittany K-

Kaitlyn H- Boy

Amy M - 

Rachelle P= Girl

Christine e - Boy

Lyndi k - Boy

Heather l - Girl

Katie t - 

Katie G- GIrl

Amy m - Boy

Holli W- girl

Katie p- 

So far that makes for a grand total of 19. Wow.  And I am almost positive that there are a few that are not far along and are not yet sharing the news but we will include them in the next prego post.

and literally as I am writing this 3 more ladies on FB announce their pregnancies. HA!

This is not counting the 9-ish ladies who were pregnant the same time as I was but have had their children in the last 4-6 months. 

Here's to 5 weeks left of pregnant bliss!

And good luck to all the babies of 2012... and the few in 2013 as well!

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As I write this I am reminded of the special gift it is for women to be pregnant. To be blessed with the miracle of life growing inside you.  It truly is nothing less than that. As pregnant women we complain because of the aches and pains of pregnancy, labor and delivery. We sigh and think to ourselves "how much longer do I have to be like this?" We wish that sometimes it didn't have to be this hard. However, we also forget that there are women who would give anything to have our back pains, our midnight bathroom runs, our swollen feet and our heartburn just to feel that little wiggle inside of a baby growing. My heart breaks for those women. I have had so many dear friends in my life that have experienced loss or troubles getting pregnant. If I could I would give you my uterus so you could experience the adventure of pregnancy. I have a firm belief that we have a loving Father in Heaven that knows us each individually and will only give us what we are able to handle and when we are able to handle it. We may not always know why we aren't able to have children when we want to, but having the faith to know that God has a plan for us and we just need to rely on his timetable for things to happen makes things a little more comforting. 

So to my pregnant friends,  let people touch your tummy and share in your joy. 

You don't know where they have been or what journey they are on. 

And the next time you feel overwhelmed or grumpy because of pregnancy, remember how lucky you are.

I will get off my soapbox now. 

Watch me grow!

For my family far away here is my tummy progression months 1-8. Can't believe I'm almost done. I'm one of those weirdos that aside from an occasional bad day.... I love being pregnant.

Last trip home before baby

I took one last trip home before I am too pregnant to leave the state. I can't believe only 5 weeks left till my due date and the arrival of baby girl. This pregnancy has gone by in the blink of an eye. 

My very good friend Calix came along as my road trip buddy, and my nephew came along as a stow away to visit Zach's grandparents in California and spend a week with them. 

He is such a good kid and we had a blast with him in the car. 

I love road trips and all the fun stops along the way.

We went to the Queen Mary and took their haunted ship tour. It was really cool to hear all of the fun stories from the ship. 

 Another day we went to the aquarium with my brother and him and Calix fed the birds. I declined. 

Mostly because I am not a fan of birds or anything with beaks and the thought of them landing on me did not sound fun. So instead I decided to snap the camera and catch a couple funny pictures of them "enjoying" their time feeding the birds. 

Then we went shopping, went to the beach, more shopping, lots of yummy dinners, took naps,

played in the hot tub, did facials, and did I mention shopping?

Before we left I had a baby shower with the ladies in the ward and some family members.

 As you can tell the bump is growing ever bigger each day. Starting to feel huge and getting uncomfortable. 

Baby girl was completely spoiled with TONS of clothes.  I mean this kid has a complete wardrobe until age 2. I am so blessed to have a strong support group and already know Baby Girl will be so loved and cared for. I am starting to get excited for her arrival. Like I said, I feel very large, its hard to imagine I can get any bigger before she gets here. I am down to weekly doctor visits and am becoming well known around the office. I love my Dr and I know he will be amazing on "D day". I'm not nervous for labor, I'm nervous for everything else but I know it will all be ok and can't wait to see my little family grow!

The first half of July

 Happy Birthday to me!

And SEVEN months pregnant as well! 

Woo Hoo! This pregnancy has gone by so fast. As excited as I am to have baby girl here, at the same time I want to keep here in there just a while longer. I love being pregnant. Aside from the typical aches and pains, I have had a fairly easy pregnancy and have a lot of fun watching my tummy grow. 

 Zach had to work during the day so I spent the day at home just hanging out. That evening we walked around the freedom festival but it was too dang hot outside and all I wanted to do was go home and sit by the air conditioning. I know super exciting right?

On our way to dinner. 

Sorry folks, but were still very much in love.

My friend Brittany met us at the festival with her two girls . Love her!

The on the 4th of July we went to the pool with the Lyman family. We did it last year as well, and I'm glad to say it is one of my favorite traditions. This year Maizy was big enough to go down the slide and got to sit on my lap. She was scared at first but then had a blast. I don't know what happened but as soon as we started going down she quickly tried to turn around and hold on to me, which threw off our balance and threw us into warp speed and I didn't have a chance to try and slow us down before we hit the bottom. HOLY COW. Completely dunked BOTH of us under water and had to pretend the whole thing was "fun" so she wouldn't be freaked out. Then we went back to the house and had brownies and ice cream and opened a couple presents. After hanging out for a while, Zach and I were too tired to stay and decided to just go home and cuddle instead. On the way home we passed a park where TONS of people were setting up to watch the stadium of fire fireworks show. We figured, hey it's free lets watch.

We picked a spot right outside the hospital (Zach's second home) and hung out eating snacks and watching the sun go down. Very relaxing and just what we needed. 

This wasn't like our usual 4th celebrations, but it was a fun change. 

Even Sophie came long for the show. She didn't freak out at all. I love this dog!

Another fun adventure we have been on is our "late night date nights".

Zach has been working nights at the ER saving lives. Its incredible how hard this man works for our family. That being said, we rarely have time to see each other. Being married to medicine you just have to find a way to make it all work out.  Ours happens to be grilled cheese sandwiches in the hospital cafeteria at midnight.

I'm awake anyways due to my awesome pregnancy insomnia and visit him on his lunch break. 

Super romantic. 

And let me just say, they have the best grilled cheese sandwiches I have ever had! 

 We also got a visit from our friends the Sizemores and their baby Jaxon. They moved away just 10 days after he was born and we have not seen them since. We met up for breakfast before they had to head home. It was so fun catching up with them. I can't believe how quickly time has gone. We're hoping to get into medical school in Arizona so we can see more of this fun family!

 In other news:

I'm working on a blessing blanket for baby girl. So far so good!

  I attempted another quilt but every time I try to work on it, Sophie decides to "help" and cause a mess.

Guess I should invest in a table. 

I know this is a beautiful picture of my ever growing tummy that most people do not want to see. But I'm hoping that in the picture you can see baby girl. That "lump" on the right side of my belly button is where she hangs out the most. My stomach is literally lopsided because she is only ever on the right side.  

It's cute, but my ribs could really use a break. 

oh yea, and we moved. AGAIN. 

This is just a snap of our house in chaos trying to get things ready to move. 

I am really getting quite good at this. 

Except this time in effort to NOT use my stomach to lift heavy things.. I pulled my groin. 

yup, awesome. I have been rendered useless for the rest of the week.

Good thing is all packed and were outta here!

I'm sorry

To the next door neighbor that saw me in all my chubby pregnant naked glory this morning,

I am sorry. 

I have no control over the horribly placed bathroom window right out side your door. If I had the choice, I would have never put it at torso height or directly outside the shower. It really was horrible timing for the both of us. I mean what teen age boy mows his lawn at 9am in the SUMMER? Shouldn't you be sleeping? 

In actuality, you should be thanking me though. 

I have taught you a very important life lesson, several actually. 

1. Don't have unprotected sex or the image you just saw will become a reality for you. 

2. In fact, don't have sex at all. Waiting till your married works best. 

3. When you are married and the time comes to procreate with your wife, congrats. It's a fun time. 

If you make it through her pregnancy without being eaten alive by the hormones, please promise me one thing... 

If you ever see your very pregnant wife naked, try your hardest to NOT make the same face you made when you saw me.  The face of sheer disgust and horror said it all. She will cry and most likely yell at you. 

I however on the other hand can quickly grab my towel, laugh and pray you didn't actually see as much as I think you did. Then sit on my bed repeating " I'm not fat, I'm pregnant" over and over until you are done mowing your backyard and pray that never happens again, never. 

In conclusion, you are welcome for the mental scars and the words of advice. 

Sincerely, 

Your very embarrassed and pasty white neighbor.