A House, A Dog, and A Baby

The past 12 months have been incredibly blessed ones for Bri and I. I have been meaning to post along the way these past 12 months, but of course have put it off and put it off. But some memories are too precious to lose, so here’s my attempt to catch up on recording them and thank my Heavenly Father for all the beautiful and best parts of the last year of our life:

In March of 2015, we bought our first home. We did our house hunting during Brian’s busy season at work so I ended up doing most of the process on my own. The market was going so fast that we had to put an offer on our home before Brian even got to see it! He was able to see it before we sealed the deal, and luckily he loved it just as much as I did. It is in a nice and quiet part of Mesa, Arizona surrounded by lots of retirement communities but lots of young and middle-aged families too. It has been so fun to “play house” and decorate over the past year. We love our home.

I have wanted a dog ever since moving away from home and away from my childhood dog Delilah. Once we got a home it was finally a possibility to get a dog. We had been trying to get pregnant for a few months without success. Brian and I made a deal that if we weren’t pregnant by the time of my birthday, June 18^th, then we could get a dog. Birthday came with no positive pregnancy test, and suddenly we found ourselves with a Luna in the house. Luna is a miniature goldendoodle, basically a living stuffed teddy bear. Our first day with her we took her with us on a camping trip and had a blast. I remember my tummy feeling a little funny though...

On July 9^th I took a pregnancy test and laid on the bed with Brian as we watched for lines to appear. I remember setting it on the bedside table while we waited, laying close to Brian and telling myself to be okay if it was another negative—that I still had so many wonderful blessings in my life and I was already so happy. Deep breaths. Time to check--there was a cross where each month before had been one lonely line. We were pregnant!

The first trimester of pregnancy was pretty rough for me as it is for many women. For about six weeks I was throwing up at least once a day—the worst of which was while I was driving home from work and had no time to pull over. Amazingly, I was able to catch it all in my lap and scoop it up with an empty cup once I got to a stop light. The pants never recovered. I lost eight pounds that first trimester and finally asked the doctor for some medication. As soon as I started with that, my nausea subsided and it was SUCH a relief! The second trimester was fun and easy; I felt like it took forever for my belly to show and I was so excited to really look pregnant. Luckily I never got super big so my third trimester was not too uncomfortable. I planned to stop work two weeks before the baby’s due date. My last day of work was on a Friday and Brian and I had a blissful Saturday together. And then Brooklyn decided she was ready to come! Click here to see the video of Bri and I sharing Brooklyn’s birth story!