Big News!

I'm sorry I've been so quiet on the blog lately, but I promise its been for a very good reason! Well, several reasons. The first being that I have done absolutely nothing worthy of writing about on the blog for several weeks now. And second, that I haven't been feeling very well at all. And the reason is already known to some of you... but others may not know.

I am pregnant!

We are due on November 5th. I am 12 weeks along and am close to finishing up my first tri-mester! Like I said, I haven't been feeling well because of the pregnancy for a while and because of that have been keeping to the house and not going much anywhere besides work and church. 

Kanyon is so excited and has been so sweet to me during my bad days, of which there have been many. I have been so thankful for him, maybe more than ever, during these last few weeks since he has been doing everything he can to help me feel better and pick up the slack around the house. I know this is just a tiny glimpse of how nurturing he will be as a dad. He loves kids and probably a large part of my excitement about being pregnant is being excited to finally see him be a daddy to his own baby! I gotta stop before I make myself cry at work.

For me, I keep having to remind myself that we are not playing make-believe and that we are really having a baby! I think this first tri-mester finally ending will be good for me because I will finally start showing and (hopefully) start feeling better and it will become more real to me! Its not that I'm not excited, I am, I think I am just showing it in a more private and personal way that I realized I would. I have dreams occasionally of the baby and I always love having them. I love talking about the future with my parents, who will be first time grandparents, and my parents-in-law, who will be eleventh time grandparents but are just as excited as if it was their first. People keep asking me if we have thought of names or picked out colors or even announced it on Facebook but we haven't yet. Something I've learned about myself is if I am looking forward to something that requires a process like this, I don't like to rush and get everything done in excitement. I like to spread out the fun and not rush. I hate when I spoil a Christmas present because I love Christmas. I don't even like opening gifts on Christmas Eve because I would rather save it! I think thats why I'm so hesitant to talk about names yet. Of course, I don't mind when people ask me about it and I will bring it up still but it being so early and me not showing yet, its almost like this fun private experience between me and Kanyon still and we are enjoying getting to tell people slowly.

(Of course, now that I'm writing this on the blog, its not so slow anymore! But this still feels more private than Facebook and I kinda needed to think out loud. And if you're wondering if you its okay for you to tell people, it is!)

To be honest, I may think I've got my emotions figured out but I don't think I do. This is all so new to me! I don't recognize my body at all. There are way more symptoms than I even knew about. I had heartburn for the first time last weekend and didn't know that was what it was all day because I had never had it. I just don't know what to expect these days as far as how I will respond to that food or if I will feel good enough to do that thing on whatever day. I had to throw away a pair of shoes last week because I got sick will driving all over them. (I'm sorry to the men who work at the garage that I pulled over in.) Its just so weird to not recognize your own body. And I don't think I would have understand what that meant before I was pregnant. Anyone else understand that??

Well, lets get to a more exciting part - like an ultrasound picture!

This was the baby at nine weeks, which was three weeks ago. Just a little peanut. The best part (besides confirming we were pregnant!) was hearing the heartbeat. It was very loud and strong and the doctor assured us that having that strong of a heartbeat at nine weeks was a very good sign, taking the chances of miscarriage down to 1%. I think hearing that allowed us to breathe easier and almost gave us permission to celebrate. We were trying to guard our hearts before we found out everything was okay.

We have our second ultrasound the second week of May, when I will be 14 weeks. I'm very anxious to see how much the baby has grown! 

Well, I think I'll stop here and breathe a sigh of relief that this is finally up on the blog. I've been feeling bad about not updating very much recently but the only thing I wanted to talk about was the pregnancy!

Oh, except for this one thing! Kanyon and I have a new nephew and he is so beautiful. Upon seeing this picture, I thought "I want a boy!", though we really don't have a preference!

This is Krae Nicholas Shock, born last week. This picture drives me crazy because I want to hold him so bad when I see it.

I hope you have a great Wednesday!

On My Mind

We had a storm come in late last night. I got out of bed and put on my rain coat so I could sit on the front porch and watch it roll in. Zeb came and sat with me. It was the most wonderful smell and sight! It lightning-ed (is that a word?) a little bit and Zeb scooted just a little bit closer to me every time :) He's not a snuggler so I appreciate those times. Watching that storm roll in and smelling the rain was a great reason to miss out on some sleep.

I think spring has officially arrived around here! Our trees have leaves on them again and our front yard is looking greener. Unfortunately, Kanyon had to completely till up the backyard. The weeds were the only thing that survived the drought so we are back at square one. Not pretty. Kanyon plans on seeding the yard soon. I may even have a garden this year! Kanyon's Aunt Rhnea a couple doors down was telling me she would help me since she may not be able to plant a garden in her own backyard this year because of some renovations they are doing. I'm having a hard time battling my spring fever. I really want to be outside and working on our yard but I have no idea where to start and its hard not to get discouraged thinking about what all died last year. We have lots of plans for making our backyard a place we actually want to hang out in. Its such a great space already.

I'm excited about this idea I got from Pinterest:

Click on picture to go to my pin on Pinterest.

We have a humongous tree in our backyard that grass will not grow around because the tree doesn't allow much light to come through. So what we are thinking of doing is having a graveled "patio" all the way around the base of the tree. On one side it will stretch out far enough to put our fire pit and some sturdy chairs around it.

Speaking of renovations, the laundry room has stayed as is for the moment. I'm not complaining since its still a whole lot better than it was before but Kanyon has been swamped with leather and farming so building the shelves and staining the countertop will have to wait.

Work has been quiet lately with only me in the front right now. We are in the process of interviewing for a new secretary so I am taking on a few of the secretarial roles. Thankfully its keeping me just enough busy but its about to get a lot more busy this month and then summer will hit so another hand in the office will be much needed. We are praying we find someone quick! 

Our Easter weekend was so nice - we spent most of it at our home, which is just what we needed. Do you ever feel like you have to recuperate from vacation? I felt like after a week gone, then a week back at work, I just needed to be at home. (And not just because my house hadn't been cleaned since before we left...) Sunday, we had a great morning worship and then a potluck lunch and an Easter egg hunt for the kids at church. It was wonderful.

I hope you had a great Easter weekend! And thats the end of my random thoughts.

Oh, except I think you need to see this picture of 3 month old Ainsley smiling:

How sweet is she??

Our week on the Cruise!

We had a great time on our cruise last week! It was a relaxing week. We took a 5 night cruise with Carnival on the Triumph ship to Progreso and Cozumel.

The ship was beautiful! I didn't get any pictures of the inside but this was the top deck where the pool was. Most everyone spent their days up here and they had a "deck party" a couple of nights up here as well. The main breakfast and lunch places were behind me.

The first full day of the cruise, there was a formal night and I love when Kanyon wears a tie! He always looks so handsome dressed up. I was a little seasick at most times so I was lucky to get some make-up on!

One of Kanyon's favorite things is sour candy and there was a store on the ship full of options so of course we had to make a couple trips to it. (He'll probably really appreciate this picture :) )

Monday and Tuesday were spent at sea. Wednesday, the ship stopped at Progreso on the Yucatan Peninsula. Honestly, we weren't too excited about this stop since we've heard there's not much to do. So we decided to book massages for that day. It was definitely the best massage I've ever had. Kanyon thought so, too, though he's only had one other one on our honeymoon. After going back and taking showers, we headed down to the pier at Progreso and shopped a little but didn't get much farther than that.

The next day we docked at Cozumel. We didn't have any plans as far as excursions but decided to play it by ear. We ended up shopping a little bit and then taking a taxi to a stretch of beach. There was a lot of little private beach clubs that we got to go visit.

First thing we did was go rent some Waverunners! We had a lot of fun on them, though we ended up getting half our money back at the end because they kept dying. But we still loved it.

Around lunchtime, we decided to go have some chips and guacamole at Carlos and Charlie's, a famous chain in Mexico (they own Senor Frog's).

After spending a little more time on the beach, we headed back to the ship to eat some lunch and take a nap after all that time in the sun!

Of course, I had to get a shot of the water. It was so blue!

Here's a shot of our cruise ship, the Carnival Triumph.

I guess I didn't get any more pictures after Cozumel. Sometimes its hard to get many when its just the two of you since you have to always ask someone to take the picture!

The day after, Friday, was our last day on the cruise. We had had enough of the sun by that point and spent most of the day inside going to different activities on the cruise, like the Newlywed Game (always fun) and Bingo! We also spent a lot of time that week reading (really more me than Kanyon). Of course, I have to mention that the food was great! I think my favorite part was that I didn't have to cook it or clean up.

Saturday morning, we docked at Galveston really early and Mom picked us up about 8:00 am. We spent the rest of the day lounging around and going to go see the Hunger Games movie (which was good by the way but I recommend the book too!).

It was a great week away and I'm still not sure I'm ready to be back at work this week! We usually get Good Friday off, though, so I'm looking forward to that. Now just counting down till our next vacation!