July 2011

The month of July was very eventful for us. We celebrated the fourth of July with the traditional Provo early morning hot air balloons and then the stadium of fire. We also celebrated a bunch of family birthdays. My brother had his 18th birthday, our twin nieces had their 8th birthday, our nephew had his 5th birthday, and McKay's mom had a birthday in which she turned older. McKay's sisters came out to visit from Colorado and Illinois over the weekend that our twin nieces were baptized, so we got to spend a lot of time with the Young's.

Me and Jonathan on his 18th birthday

McKay's sister Cecily's family (we had just introduced them to Angry Birds)

I was lucky enough to go spend a day in Cedar City with my extended family and attend the Shakespearean festival and my cousin Rebecca's bridal shower. It was only one day, but it was a busy, family filled day.

The Miner Family in front of SUU

We were also lucky enough to have some of my old college roommates over for dinner and games before Keri moves to Indiana for grad school. We had fun eating, playing some intense games of pit and clue, and holding baby Adelle.

Mary, Keri and Me

Mary holding baby Adelle

During the month of July our baby also got bigger and in turn I got a little fatter. I had to take the yucky glucose test and get tested for anemia. Luckily the month of July also brought us the results that I do not have gestational diabetes or an iron deficiency (yet). The end of the month also found me starting to get a little bit nervous as i realized that our baby would be here in less than 3 months! 3 months seemed like a long ways away until just recently. We also bought a crib and got it set up so that I could feel like we actually had a place to bring baby home to.

25 weeks!

McKay finishing up the crib

July went by really fast, but we had a lot of fun.

Life since April

We have been really busy these last 4 months. That isn't really an excuse for not blogging because I check other peoples blogs at least weekly, I just haven't gotten around to writing on my own. So since we found out we were pregnant we have had a couple of fun things transpire. We went on the Rogers family annual vacation to Ft. Myers Florida in April. In June My baby brother Jonathan graduated from high school while simultaneously graduating with his associates degree from UVU, and I taught my very last preschool class and entered the world of the unemployed.We also moved from our little apartment/house in American Fork  into a much more spacious condo in Orem. Then on June 17th we found out that we were having a little girl and decided to name her Madelynn (unless we change our mind sometime in between now and when we actually meet her). We also celebrated McKay's first fathers day. Even though the baby is only half baked we decided it counted. In between these things McKay has been working his way up the corporate ladder at Fidelty. He is loving his job. He loves the people that he works with and is doing really well there. He has already had a promotion and two pay raises. Yay for more money! I have been what McKay calls wife sick. Wife sicks is also known as morning sickness that lasts 24 hours a day. Because of that I have not been up to anything very exciting for the last few months. I am now going to talk about my battle with morning sickness, so if you don't want to read about it, stop now.

For the first two weeks that I knew I was pregnant I felt grand! I felt just a little bit nauseous and headachey, like i did before i miscarried last fall, so that is what I thought I would be up against for this pregnancy. Boy was I wrong. The day that i hit six weeks pregnant I felt like I had caught an intense flu bug and  started throwing up anywhere from 6-10 times a day. If i ate anything at all it would come right back up within half an hour. And quite frequently if I drank anything it would come right back up. After about a week and a half of that my doctor put me on medication and that curbed my vomiting to only 3-5 times a day. That meant that I would keep down my food for a few hours before it would come back up, and that I could usually keep drinks down. Then when I went to Florida my body decided to be nice to me and I only threw up a handful of times that whole week! But the second we  came home and the puking resumed. Then I hit 15 weeks, the point by which most pregnant people who experience morning sickness are totally done with it, and my puking subsided to only 2-3 times a day. That meant I could usually keep my last meal of the day down. I would eat at about 8:00 or 8:30 and then promptly climb into bed so I could try and sleep through the ensuing nausea and let my body actually get some nutrients. Then at about 20 weeks (when we moved) I started only throwing up every few days. I still feel nauseous everyday, but now my vomiting is only triggered by over exertion, lack of sleep, too much dairy (I think I might be a little lactose intolerant), having too much food or water in me or not enough food or water in me. And then occasionally a yucky smell (or a particularly nasty burp emitted by my husband) will send me running to the toilet. But for the most part those are things I can kind of control. I am proud to say that it has almost been a full week since I have thrown up! That may be way more than some people want to know, but that has been my life for the last 5+ months. I spent the better part of 4 months sleeping or laying on the couch watching T.V. until I had to eat, go to the bathroom or teach preschool. That is why I haven't had much to blog about. Luckily, because the sickness has subsided a great deal I am starting to feel a lot more like a human, and unless I am having one of my really bad days, I can actually do some stuff! And, since I am keeping most of my food down now, I have stopped losing weight. I lost about 8 pounds in the first half of my pregnancy, but at 25 weeks I think I have almost put those 8 pounds back on. Yay for eating food and being able to digest it! I seriously envy the pregnant women who don't get morning sickness, and I also envy the "normal" pregnant people who have morning sickness that clears up around 12-15 weeks. I hope my next pregnancies can be like that!

Well that about sums it up for now. Here are some of the pictures of our recent happenings.

 In Ft. Myers on the Caloosahatchee river.

 McKay getting in touch with his inner Alligator at The Shell Factory.

Boating in the Gulf of Mexico!

The Rogers cousins and my grandparents. None of the male cousins could come this year, so McKay was all alone (which I am pretty sure he was fine with).

 Jonathan's Graduation

 My sweet preschool class. They were a handful, but I miss them.

 Some of my coworkers from John Hancock Charter School. I miss them too.

 McKay's first fathers day. His sisters were sweet and got him a cute little onesie that says, "daddy's little princess". That will very much apply once this little girl is born.

Our last day at our American Fork apartment. Goodbye 17th ward. We will miss you!

Baby Young

So... we are pregnant! 

We are going to have a baby Young or a young baby, whichever way you want to put it. We are due October 29th. Since McKay's Birthday is October 21st he wants the baby to either come on his actual birthday, or as far away from it as possible. We'll see how that works out. We are only 10 weeks and change along, but this pregnancy feels like it is taking FOREVER! We pretty much knew we were pregnant immediately, so I have felt pregnant since the beginning of February. Since we had the miscarriage in November I had already experienced early pregnancy symptoms and was recognizing them almost immediately. We found out for sure on February 19th. It was technically the first day that we could find out whether or not we were pregnant, and I told myself we would wait longer, but I felt so sick, and so sure I was pregnant I just wanted to get the test over with. Needless to say, it was positive. As were the tests we took after that. 

We decided to wait a little while longer to announce this pregnancy because we had just experienced a miscarriage and now realize how delicate that little life really is. We decided we would wait to tell people until we had our doctors appointment and saw that everything was ok. We had an early ultrasound at 7 weeks just to make sure the baby was growing like it should and that it had a heart beat. The last baby didn't have one of those, so when the hooked me up to the Doppler thing and I heard the baby's fast little heart beat I started laughing and crying at the same time. It was amazing. I am so excited for McKay to be able to hear it's heartbeat at our next appointment later this month.

7 week ultrasound along with Baby's heartbeat

We had our regular first pregnancy appointment at 9 1/2 weeks. So far everything looks good. The doctor said that the baby is measuring 3-4 days smaller than expected, but that is not enough to change the due date, so we are still on track for October 29th for now. 

9 1/2 week ultrasound. Our baby looks like an upside down bug!

We are so excited to be parents (and also a little nervous) and feel so blessed to have the opportunity to start our little family. We both hope to have a girl first, but I keep feeling like it will be a little boy, so we will see what happens!

4 weeks, and soooo excited!

 10 weeks, and sooooo bloated!

We decided we should do stuff....

McKay and I decided we want to do more fun things with our time. We always have things we say we want to do, but unless we actually sit down and plan it out they never happen. So that is what we are doing now, we are planning things out. We made an extremely awesome personalized calendar on Costco.com and when we got it in the mail we sat down and had a major planning meeting. We sat down for like 2 hours and wrote down the things we wanted to do or see and tried to find times in the next few months that we could do them. Now our calendar is filled with things to do with our free time. We have already done a few things on our calendar list, and  they have been really fun.

First, we took a day and went down to the BYU Museum of Art and the Bean Life Science Museum. We have both been there before, but the last time either of us had been to them was before we graduated, and that is over a year and a half ago! It was really fun to see both museums with fresh eyes. It made for a nice day out.

Us with a nicely stuffed Black Bear.

I know I look way tired in this picture, ignore that.

Second, on Saturday we headed back down to BYU to watch the Gymnastics meet. It was sooooo much fun! When I was a little girl my family had season tickets to SUU's Gymnastics, so being there on saturday brought back happy memories, especially because BYU was competing against SUU (along with Utah State and Iowa State). We had awesome seats and I am so glad we shelled out the $10 to go. It was well worth it. Those Gymnasts are amazing. Since McKay and I are both failed Gymnasts so we could really appreciate their skill (Our bodies just aren't built for gymnastics, we are too tall and way too bottom heavy. Luckily I found this out much earlier in life than McKay did.)

SUU and BYU 

Third, we went out for a nice long walk near Utah lake. It was a beautiful day. It was cold of course, but it was sunny and we discovered a new path along the river that was absolutely stunning. We will be returning frequently as the weather warms up. One of the coolest things we saw on our walk was a broken water valve that was spewing water and had frozen on all the trees and bushes around it. It looked really cool. If it was warmer I would have wanted to play in it. Who am I kidding, I wanted to play in it, but my better judgement told me NO!

Fourth, we had some of our new favorite people over for dessert on Sunday night. Since moving into this new ward last summer the Geetings have wormed their way into our hearts. It was really fun to have them over and to have a reason to bake a tasty treat. I have felt sugar deprived during these last few weeks of dieting.

It is always fun when one of the geetings little boys are around, and Sunday was no exception. Audrey, thank you for letting me feed you and your family. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Last night we got to go up to Salt Lake with my family and have dinner at the Cheesecake Factory to celebrate my baby sisters 14th birthday. She is getting SO BIG! I love being with my family, even though my sisters tend to invite major drama with them wherever they go. Happy Birthday Jessica. I love you to pieces.

The Rogers Family

Jessica

The super cool zebra cake I made Jessica

That is all for now. McKay is working 20-25 hours of overtime each week so we only get to do fun things on the weekends.

Actually keeping a New Years resolution!

So, this year, one of our resolutions (along with a million other people I am sure) was to loose weight and get in better shape. However, this year, unlike any other, I have extra motivation to do so. I have had almost a trimesters worth of pregnancy weight hanging onto my body because of my miscarriage, and then add some holiday weight on top of that. Well, I want to be a mom as soon as possible, but I have also wanted to get rid of that extra weight and get my body back to where it was before my miscarriage, because otherwise I would have ended my next pregnancy with almost 3 extra months worth of pregnancy weight. YUCK. So I joined Weight Watchers with my mom and  have been hitting the diet and exercise thing pretty hard for about 2 weeks, and I have lost 10 pounds! Can you believe that!?! 10 freaking pounds in 2 weeks. I guess my body really wanted that  baby weight to go away, because it has been very cooperative. McKay has also lost that much (and maybe even a pound or two more) in two weeks. I am thrilled right now. I don't expect things to keep going that fast because A) it is not really healthy to keep losing that much weight that fast, and B) our bodies are over the initial shock of diet/exercise. I think my body is now starting to become good friends with fresh fruits and vegetables. So, here is to loosing weight just so that I can get super fat again. YAY!

Sorry if this post is a little bit scatterbrained, it is after 1:00 a.m. and I am really, really, really tired, but my brain will not shut up and let me sleep. On the plus side, I am having lots of good crafty ideas. Tomorrow I am going to make something really pretty. Be prepared!

The Holidays! 2010

November and December were busy months for us. We had a lot of big events, and I am going to post a little blurb about each of them in this post.

First, we found out we were pregnant in October so we got really excited about being parents, and I got really, really tired and sick.

 Second, the week before thanksgiving we were lucky enough to go out to California to attend McKay's cousin Dekan's wedding. McKay was a groomsman, so we were involved in all of the wedding events. McKay and Dekan's mom's come from the Dunbar clan so, for the wedding rehearsal, Nicci and Ilse made the most gorgeous kilts for the boys to wear, in the authentic Dunbar tartan. The kilts were a surprise, and everyone got a kick out of them.

The Rehearsal dinner was really relaxed. We went to a fancy Pizza Place and took over their back patio. It was really fun to see some of McKay's extended family that we haven't seen in a long time and to meet other family members that I had never met. 

The actual ceremony was beautiful, but long. I had never been to a catholic wedding before, but it was nice. And the place that they got married had large windows that looked out over the ocean, so the whole time we were watching the ceremony we could also see the ocean behind them. I'm sure the location made for gorgeous wedding pictures.

The Reception was awesome. I don't think I have ever had food that good and that plentiful at a reception before. The Physical atmosphere was also gorgeous. It also made it fun that we rode there in a limo-bus. There was a lot of dancing. It was really entertaining to watch some of the tipsy bridesmaids bust it out on the dance floor, especially when they were dancing with my little nephew Benjamin who is in 1st grade. It was really fun to be able to watch Dekan and Elyse on their wedding day as well. Dekan was soooooooo happy and excited all day.

Congratulations Dekan and Elyse!

Third, we took a little trip to the Valley of fire on our way home from California. We had a lot of fun playing on the rocks, even though it was a little colder than we expected.

Fourth, I had a birthday and turned 23! We celebrated by going to dinner at Ruby River with my family, and my uncle Allen's family, and my cousin Jackson. It was neat to have everyone together, and the food was awesome.

Fifth,we had a busy Thanksgiving. This year my extended family had Thanksgiving dinner at my mom's house so we got to see my grandparents and most of my aunts, uncles and cousins. It was busy and a little bit crowded, but always nice to see everyone. I saw some of my cousins that I haven't seen in a really long time. The little girls in my family LOVE McKay and had fun playing with him.

Sixth, the first week of December we had a miscarriage. We lost the baby at 9 weeks. It was a sad week for me. Luckily as far as miscarriages go it was a pretty good one, without any complications.

Seventh, we had lots of Christmas activities. I was able to get together with some of my high school friends. We wen't out to lunch and then had fun chatting and decorating gingerbread cookies.We also got together with some of McKay's high school friends and had a big Christmas dinner.

We had a busy Christmas eve and day split between our two families. On Christmas eve we had Chinese food for dinner and then had a little talent show and lots of Christmas music. McKay picked up the guitar quite a bit over the holiday season and I really enjoyed hearing him play Christmas music on the guitar.

On Christmas morning we opened presents at my parents house. It was a really pleasant morning. 

Once things died down after Lunch we wen't over to McKay's parents house for more presents and more food. 

Something really funny happened on Christmas. McKay and his dad each got each other gifts, the same gifts. It was really funny to hear McKay's dad give him hints and hear McKay whisper,"it sounds like he got me the same thing I got him. Did he?" It was really hard not to tell him the answer.

Seventh, we took a trip up to temple square to see the lights, no holiday season is complete without a trip to see the lights on temple square. We almost turned around and drove back home when we go up there because it was so busy and crowded. There was some kind of performance going on at the conference center, so there was absolutely nowhere to park. I am glad we stayed because I love it up there. I have so many great memories of temple square, it's nice to be able to add to the memories. 

Eighth, we celebrated our third anniversary. Yay for 3 awesome years of marriage. Sadly McKay had to work and then the restaurant we went to eat at had a ridiculously long wait, so we decided to celebrate our anniversary China Style. Last year we went to Pizza Hut in Wuhan for our 2nd anniversary, so we got pizza from pizza hut and had a great evening at home.

Ninth, we celebrated New Years Eve with my family and a fondue dinner. We celebrated new years at 10 when the ball dropped in New York and then wen't home and celebrated ourselves at Midnight. 

So, Happy New Year! 

And now I am caught up on the happenings of the last 2 months and don't as bad about my blog neglect.

Playing with guns by Utah Lake

Over the weekend we had really nice weather (probably for the last time this year), so to take advantage of that we decided we would either go golfing or go shooting. We ended up choosing to go shooting because it is sooooo much cheaper. We had a little fun with this excursion and decided to recreate one of our first dates.

Back in May of 2007 a really cute boy that I had only been on one or two dates with decided to take me on a really long drive to the unpopulated side of Utah Lake. It was really hot out and his car didn't have air conditioning and my window didn't roll down all the way. I was a little bit grumpy on the hour long drive to get to the right spot to go shooting. McKay is super lucky that I grew up with my father who collects guns and has taken me shooting since I was a little girl, otherwise this kind of a date could have put an end to us. McKay was a brave boy taking girl he barely knew into the middle of nowhere to go shooting. Luckily I am the kind of girl you can do that with. Maybe that is why we ended up getting married. Anyway so on this date we had fun shooting his handful of guns and then finished the drive around the lake and had a picnic lunch/dinner in the Provo Harbor. McKay planned the whole thing so all he brought was cheese and crackers. The cheese wasn't even sliced so he whipped out his pocket knife (which was kind of dirty and grossed me out) and cut off little slices for us. We sat by the edge of the lake and talked for quite a while and had one of my most memorable dates ever.

So, fast forward 3 1/2 years and you will find us, recreating that date. The drive to the other side of the lake was much more comfortable because our car now had air conditioning and windows that roll down all the way. Plus, we know each other really well so there were no awkward silences on the drive. This time we spent even more time shooting. We were out there for close to 2 hours and it was a blast! After that we drove to the American Fork Harbor (because that is closer to where we live now) and had cheese and crackers for dinner. However, this time we pre-sliced the cheese so that no dirty pocket knife was needed. I am so lucky to have such a fun, awesome husband. We decided we will have to go shooting more often. This time we definitely won't wait 3 1/2 years to do it again.

Us in May 2007:

We look so young!

Us in November 2010: