It's a girl!

We were SO excited and happy to find out we're having a girl!

The night that I found out I was pregnant, I wrote in my journal:

         "I really feel like a little girl will be coming into our family and it makes me want to cry with joy.  She will be the sweetest, smartest little one.  I'm so excited to see how this goes and to experience this blessing that God has given us."                  

It was wonderful to finally have these feelings confirmed last month at our ultrasound!

I'm almost 22 weeks now and I can feel the baby move throughout the day. Boyd was excited to finally feel kicks for the first time this last week.

It has been interesting (and somewhat trying) to see people's reactions at work and school to me being pregnant. While some people are really happy for me, other people say things like, "Congratulations, I guess..." or "So are you happy about this then?" "Was this planned?!" is another awkward one.

I'm grateful that I have a family and good friends that still see children as a blessing even though a lot of society seems to focus on how inconvenient and burdening they can be.  After a few negative experiences with sharing my news, I was grateful to have one of my supervisors remind me that although it is a sacrifice, it will all be worth it one day. She assured me that I will never regret choosing to have a baby. I'm so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who gives us the opportunity to choose if and when we will become parents, and then supports us in our decision.  We realize that come September, our lives will take on a different focus and we will have to make sacrifices in order to make things work. But we're excited about the great joy that has already come into our family from this little blessing.

We're excited to meet you, little girl! Now if we can just get through the HOT summer...

22 Weeks

21 Weeks

Girl will be styling thanks to Aunt Jessica!

First outfit we bought her a week before we found out it was a girl!

Baby Kicks

I'm getting fatter! I started wearing maternity pants the other day and they feel glorious. :)
I've started feeling kicks pretty consistently, but it still surprises me once in awhile when I'm not expecting it. I've been down and out with a terrible cold this week, but other than that, I'm enjoying my second trimester so far.  We're anxious for next week when we'll find out if this baby will be a son or a daughter! :)  The doctor took a look at about 15 weeks and said something about "not seeing anything obvious popping up down there..." which made me think girl, but she wasn't comfortable making a guess, so who knows! Maybe a little boy will surprise us!  It will be wonderful news either way.

Then next month... ELLEN SHOW for Mother's Day Giveaway :) Can't wait!

18 weeks

Happy Spring, Happy News

This year, I decided I was going to write down my New Year's Resolutions. On New Year's Day, I wrote down: 1. have a baby. 2. become a skilled chef.  The next day, I took a test and found out that one of my resolutions was going to come to fruition! (And let's be honest, the other one might never happen for me.)

The first trimester was the least fun so far (as expected.) I thought since my sisters and mom didn't get morning sickness, I would be off the hook. Wrong. It could have been a lot worse (and I'm soo glad it wasn't) but I still didn't enjoy the lovely evening nausea I had for about 5 weeks.

I'm enjoying the second trimester and the small little taps from the little babe that have started this week :) Its such a magical thing. I'm so grateful to get to experience it. I've been writing in a little journal every few days and its already really fun to look back at how things have changed in the last few months. We had an ultrasound today and we were soo close to finding out the gender, but my Dr didn't want to make a guess without being sure :( So now we have a 3 week wait until we'll know for sure!

Thanks for sharing in our happy news!

Hayley

Ps. Kudos to those that have known since Day 2 or soon after, but had to wait until almost 16 weeks for me to spill the beans! :))

Holiday Cheer

I know its already February, but this year has been pretty busy for us and I'm just getting around to recording our Christmastime. :) This was definitely the best Christmas we've had since being together. I think its because we had more time to spend together doing Christmas activities that have become meaningful to us.

We did a lot of things, but some of my favorites were: traveling to Utah to visit with family and friends, reading my Grandma's copy of A Christmas Carol together, decorating and going to look at lights, and buying Christmas toys for kids in our community.  I love that our family traditions are slowly taking place as we try out new things each year.  I'm already looking forward to this year!!