Breaking the silence

So sorry for such a gap in our posting! Life has definitely taken a bit of a change for us. I was going to post about Thanksgiving and then Christmas but my Christmas photos were erased off of Sean's computer. Then I just didn't feel like posting and one excuse ran into another. I am finally ready to share though some of the most exciting news that has happened to us. 

On February 14, 2012, I was planning on giving blood at my work that day since they were doing a blood drive. Well out of habit since my period hadn't started yet I decided to take a pregnancy test, just to make sure. Well out of the 6+ years of being infertile, I figured it would be negative, like all the other tests that I had taken in the past. So I peed on the stick and then left it and when on with my morning routine. Well a few minuets later I looked at it and couldn't believe my eyes! It was POSITIVE!!

I always wondered how I would react if I found out that I was pregnant and I was totally in shock. I couldn't believe it! Well Sean knew that I was taking the test that morning, so I texted him and said "Happy Valentine’s Day! Guess what? We’re PREGNANT!" It was followed up with a picture of the positive test. He couldn't believe it either. Once the initial shock wore off, we took two more pregnancy tests just to make sure and both came back positive.

Well we wanted to make sure that this was something that was actually happening so we didn't really tell anyone about it until we had our first Dr appointment on May 1st. We couldn't help but cry a little when we saw our little baby up on the ultrasound screen. This truly is a miracle! 

We are sorry it has taken us this long to announce on here that we are pregnant and many of you already know via Facebook. We really wanted to make sure this was really happening before we mad the whole announcement. 

On May 23rd we were able to see our baby girl via ultrasound. It truly is such a blessing!

Over the last year we have learned so much about adoption and it will always have a very special spot in our hearts. There are so many good women and men out there that choose to place their child into a family through adoption and help make dreams come true. I have learned that no matter what, adoption is not a cake walk but is totally worth it.

We don't know what the future has in store for our little family but we are excited for the journey ahead of us.

Thank you again for your support and willingness to help us grow our family!

Vegas Baby!

 Every year at work we have what is called a Fall kick off, this is where all the admissions representative from Broadview University, get together and talk about what happened over the last school year and about what our goals and the out look are for the next year. Usually they also have prizes that they give away. Well this year among the prizes was a trip to Las Vegas to watch Boise State play University of Nevada Las Vegas. Well thinking it would be fun but not getting my hopes up I last minuet, threw one of my tickets in the bucket for this prize. Well as the time came for this to be drawn, I barely looked at the ticket and then I realized they had called my number. I couldn't believe I had actually won! Some people had put all there tickets in that bucket and with one I ended up winning. So on November 3 we headed out for a fun weekend in Vegas! 

We had to drive to Twin Falls to fly out because that is where our tickets were purchased from. It was fun to see all the Boise State Fans there and the Plain was packed. This whole weekend was organized by a local radio station and it was in celebration of one of there radio personalities. Being in a group of people like that was defiantly interesting and fun.

At the M&M factory.

Sean and I had been to Vegas a few times before but it was always for only a night, so our first night here we decided to go explore. And these are some of the pictures we took:

We stayed at the Luxar Hotel.

The sun set was very pretty and I couldn't help but get a couple pictures.

The Tropicana I think.

New York New York

Outside the Aura they had this very beautiful waterfall.

The next morning we decided that it was going to be rather expensive to eat here and so we signed up to go see a Time share presentation. It was actually a pretty neat presentation and if we were in the market to do a time share we may have taken up the offer. I took about 4 hours of our time but we got paid $200 in casino money that we could use for food and then discounted tickets to see a couple of exhibits. We were able to see the Bodies Exhibit and the Titanic exhibit. I think we both liked the Titanic one the best. 

That night we went to a restaurant called Nob Hill, in the MGM Grand Hotel. It was really good and it was fun to spend a lot on dinner but not really have to pay for it. 

Another picture of New Your New York at night.

That night we got all dressed up and headed to a club. Yes we went to a club. Neither of us had ever been to one so we decided since we could get in for free we would go check it out. It was fun to dress up but lets just say the club seen really isn't our thing. If you don't drink and you didn't go with a group of friends, clubs are a bit lame.

Before going in to the club.

This was the club we went too.

In the club right before we decided to leave.

On Saturday, we decided to rent a car and go to the temple. It was nice to get away from the city a bit and feel of the spirit.
After the Temple we went to the pool to swim for a little bit and then we got ready for the football game!

This is UNLV's Stadium and Boise State is running out onto the field.

This is a little hard to tell but they had people parachute onto the field since it was there UNLV's homecoming.

Las Vegas from the Stadium.

Sunday morning we were up early and heading to the airport to catch the flight home. It was great to have a couple days off from work and to spend so much time together. We did agree though that Vegas is not a place you go if you are wanting to have a relaxing vacation, there is too much to see and to do in Las Vegas!

Happy Halloween!!

At work this year the whole admissions team dressed up as crazy doctors . We had these surgical jackets and scrubs with blood all over them. My first victim was... 

Mr Pumpkin head:

BYU vs Idaho State

 On Oct. 22, 2011 we were able to go watch Sean's alma mater and current school go head to head. Although Sean is currently attending Idaho State, he is and will always be a BYU fan. We were able to get tickets to the game through Sean's best friend from high school, Josh. It was a lot of fun to hang out with Josh and watch football at the same time.

 I love how happy Sean is in these two pictures!

 

Sharing this game together!

After the game, Sean's whole family got together at a local restaurant. It was good to see everyone there and get a chance to catch up. 

 The lighting is off a little on these to pictures but the one above is of Melany and the one below is Kathryn and Eric.

After we were done eating, we went to see some friends from our Wymount ward when we lived there in Provo. It was great to see them and get to know there new precious addition.

Little Alvin couldn't take his eye off of Sean. I thought it was so sweet how much he liked Sean.

All in all it was pretty good week. You can never go wrong when you have a combination of football, family, food and babies!

A project 3 years in the making...

This fall, right before Halloween, I decided that I needed a change. My hair was getting so long that it was starting to drive me crazy. Not to mention the fact that it was just was starting to not look as healthy as it could be. So I decided that I was going to whack it all off. Well Sean didn't want to see it all go so we compromised, I decided on only cutting 15 inches. Here are some before and after pictures:

Once my hair was cut off it went to lock of love so hopefully some little girl can have a beautiful head of hair again. 

Canning!

While Sean was gone and over the fall I took advantage of the all the fruit around where we live. I was browsing Craigslist one day and a family had a few apricot trees that they had to much fruit on the for their family, so they were allowing people to come pick them for free. It was very nice of them and I got some very big apricots. The apricots that I'm used to from where I grew up where about half the size of these apricots.

The apricot compared to a plum.

This is a little dark picture but it shows how many apricots I was able to pick.

Sean and I both like Apricot juice better then plain apricots so that is what I decided to make.

Once they are cleaned and pitted, I boil them on the stove to get them nice and soft.

Once they have been boiled I put them through my food strainer, which separates the skins and strings from the juice. I then pour the juice into the jars and then put the jars with lids in a hot water bath for about 20 min. I didn't add any sugar because the apricots were pretty sweet already.

I ended up with about 27 quarts of juice, about of quart of dried apricots and a couple trays of fruit leather.

I also made some very yummy apricot jam.

Next canning activity was pears and Apples!

Not all of these apples and pears were mine, most of them went to my mom but I picked up the fruit for them at the Church orchard by our house.

Me slicing and dicing the fruit.

Making Apple sauce is very similar to the apricot juice that I had made earlier. You slice them up skin, seeds, and all and throw them into a pot, boil them and then send them through the food strainer.

I ended with 28 jars of Apple sauce and about 8 trays of dried apples. 

Through out the canning season we were blessed with canned cherries, pears, peaches, apricots, apple sauce and a few different kinds of jam.

Although canning is hard work, I'm grateful my mom taught me how to can and preserve fruit. I know at the time I wasn't grateful but I am now :)