She's Here!

On December 1st, 2012 at 12:37pm we welcomed our sweet, baby girl 

REESE

into the world! She weighed 8 pounds 8 ounces, was 22" long and is perfect in every way!
We are SO happy she is finally here and we just can't get enough of her. Here are a couple pictures we had taken when she was 10 days old...

So Close, Yet It Feels So Far...

Here I am, 36 Weeks pregnant, and the last 3 weeks have felt like the longest part of my pregnancy yet. I'm so grateful to be pregnant and be carrying my sweet, sweet baby girl, but honestly I'm exhausted these days. Wendy says it perfectly in the movie 'What to Expect When You're Expecting':

"I just wanted the glow-- the one that

 they promise you on the cover of magazines. 

Well I'm calling it: Pregnancy sucks! Making a human 

being is really hard, I have no control

over my body or my emotions. Gar-bear, I'm

sorry, all I want to do is punch you in the face..."

I feel like no one ever talks about how hard it is to be pregnant, hence my favorite part of this quote: "Making a human being is really hard"! I couldn't agree more...

I am just so anxious now to meet my little girl! I'm so excited to hold her and see what she looks like. I already know she's going to be a wild one cause that's how she is now. Last time we had an ultrasound the nurse even said, "Your baby is crazy!" That's expected though considering she has me for a mother and Zach for a father.
Even though pregnancy has been hard it has already been worth it: feeling her little movements, seeing her on the ultrasound, hearing her heartbeat. Everything is such an amazing experience and I would do it a hundred times over! Granted I haven't gone through the labor and delivery portion yet, but I know when all is said and done I will still feel the same. In so many ways I feel like I have been waiting for her my whole life. I love her so much and can't wait for her to come into our lives in the next month!

Catching Up

It has been awhile since my last post, so I'll try to catch up on a few things that I neglected to write about. At the start of May we took a trip out to Wisconsin to see my brother's baby who was born in April. We took a day trip to Chicago, but for the most part the trip was pretty relaxed because I was 12 weeks pregnant and very nauseous. On that note, I was really sick up until about 18 weeks, but I continued to take the nausea medicine the doctor gave me up until about 20 weeks. Since I was well into my second trimester at that point I figured I was done being sick so I stopped taking the medicine and within 48 hours I was throwing up again. Last week having reached 26 weeks I thought I was in the clear so I quit taking it again and about 48 hours later I threw up, so it looks like I am one of those lucky girls who is sick their entire pregnancy. I am just so grateful for modern medicine! I don't know what I'd do without it. Other than that things have gone smoothly so far and I am so excited to meet our little baby GIRL in a few months! That was some other exciting news we learned of in July- that we would be having a baby GIRL. We had assumed we were having a boy so it was definitely a surprise, but one that we are so excited about! Enough talk. Here are a couple pictures of our trip and our celebration on finding out our baby's gender. I wasn't really in the mood for taking pictures on our trip to Wisconsin so we didn't get many...

Lucas James Porter born April 24th, 2012

First time meeting... I'm officially an aunt!

Lake Michigan 

The boys went to a Brewers game

Chicago sightseeing 

Luke, taking a nap

Out to lunch in Wisconsin

July 9th we found out we are having a little GIRL and we couldn't be happier!

On August 7th we went to Wicked and loved every minute of it!

 Here I am at 25 weeks and my brother was kind enough to tell me I finally looked pregnant and not just like I've gained weight. This Thursday I will be 27 weeks and am so excited the count down finally feels close!

The Rumors Are True!

I thought we should make the official announcement that we are

EXPECTING!!!

Here is our first picture of our little boy or girl:

As you can tell from the picture, I'm not very far along. As of this week I am 12 weeks! The past 6 weeks have been very long for me because I have been so sick so I'm really counting on the nausea subsiding as I head into my second trimester, but I won't hold my breath. We are just so excited and feel so blessed! This already seems like such a little miracle! I'm in love already....

Best/ Worst YouTube Video I've Seen In a Long Time...

Purchase

We are officially homeowners!!!

Valentine's Came Early

Typically I'm not big on the Valentine's holiday. I'm not one who expects flowers, mostly because Zach knows I hate flowers, they remind me of funerals- which I've probably mentioned before. However, this year I decided we needed a little getaway so I used the Valentine's holiday as an excuse. Last night we spent the night up at the Zermatt Resort in Midway. We had dinner at this little mexican place called the Cantina and ended the night by enjoying the hotel's hot tub. This morning we went to breakfast at this cute little cafe and then headed to Soldier Hollow for tubing. The weather was great and the tubing runs were really fun- even the ride up on their little pulley system was enjoyable! Once we had enough of Midway we came back home and saw "The Vow" with Rachel McAdams. Still not sure about whether or not I liked it. Zach seemed to like it though, but he's usually not too critical of any movies. Although it was a brief getaway it was so much fun to do something different from our normal weekend routine.

Yes, the self-timer was used. I hate asking people to take pictures... 

The Breakfast Cafe 

Obviously had to ask someone here to take our picture...

This next picture is a little out of context, but we painted these bowls/ saucer & cup at Color Me Mine for Candace's birthday last weekend. We had so much fun and clearly I'm really proud of our work because it made it on our blog. I think I've found a new hobby!!!

We're NOT Born This Way

I apologize in advance for those of you who are Lady Gaga fans, but I'm NOT her biggest fan! I didn't mind her music until she came out with the song Born This Way. That phrase doesn't even make sense... That would mean that everyone is born a certain way and that there is NO possibility that you could ever change?! I think that'd be pretty sad to live your life thinking you were born as is and you were never able to change. Who doesn't believe in second chances? Well you wouldn't if you thought you were just "born this way". I just had to comment on that song...

Utah Winds

Last week the crazy wind storm that came through Utah did some serious damage. Zach and I drove around his parent's neighborhood in Sugar House and saw this... Keep in mind these are just a few of the homes.

The tree trashed that roof

This is just a picture of the roots...

This tree smashed this person's garage

Street lined with tree debris

I'm Finally Going To Be....

Sorry if you were thinking "a mother", but nope. I'm finally going to be an AUNT!!! I know for some people they've been aunts/ uncles for a long time, but not me. I am sooo excited for my brother Dustin's wife, Kelli, to have a baby! Oh, and it's a BOY which I am way excited about. As many of you know, Kelli and I have been friends since elementary and then she ended up marrying my brother and now they are having their first baby and my parent's first grandchild. We're all really excited about it. I don't think they've announced it to too many people yet, so I thought I would. She is due April 16th, 2012!



Better Late Than Never

I know Thanksgiving is next week and I'm just barely posting pictures from Halloween, but I'm a slacker when it comes to blogging, but better late than never. So here's a brief update...

We got to dress up at work the Friday before Halloween

Me and Katee aka Amy Winehouse

Me and Kimber aka Wednesday Addams

Our FNB team

Danny and Sandy heading to the Hale's for a Halloween party

Rachel and Jake

Sam and Steph are amazing and hosted the best Halloween party!

Warren Jeffs and his sister wives

My dad celebrated his 59th birthday on October 30th

I am so lucky to have him for a dad. He is the most encouraging, supportive, loving dad out there!

Halloween Night with the Family

Me and Sweet carving pumpkins, except he didn't exactly carve one... he made my mother do it for him... surprise, surprise!

The next birthday was Scott's on November 5th. I can't believe he is 18 and will graduate from high school this year; so weird!

Me and my boys

Umm... yeah

The birthday boy with the parentals