Hattie Claire Mills

As of April 6th at 3:23 in the afternoon, we added the newest member to our little family.  Hattie Claire Mills was born April 6th, weighing in at 7 lbs. 6 oz. and 20 inches long.  And like both of her parents, she was very stubborn in coming out because after being induced and being in labor for over 24 hours, I ended up having to get a c-section to get her out of there!  She could not be more perfect though and we love her to death! For the first almost two months she had to wear a brace because her right hip was clicking when she moved it, but other than that, she is growing big and strong and is now out of the brace.  Last night (July 14th, 2011 at about 9 pm) we put her on her tummy to play and for some tummy time and she rolled over onto her back! we were very excited! She is growing so fast, the time is flying by and as much as i love all of the different stages she goes through, it is going by way to fast!

Blessings in Disguise

Looking back on the last few weeks it is hard not to notice the blessings that have filled our life even with all of the craziness that is going on.  The main one being the incident with our apartment.  We love the apartment we are in right now.  Of course with an apartment there is always something that you wish was different or bigger, etc., but for the most part we love the apartment we live in right now.  The fact that it is a great price for how big it is really helps.  However, last week, we got a knock on our door and there standing in our doorway was a police officer with a foreclosure notice in hand.  To explain further, our apartment is basically a little house off of our landlords house, separated by a breezeway. However, since we are the same property as the landlords house, as of May, it was up in the air whether we were going to have a house to live in or not.  Of course this may not be that big of a deal for a married couple with no children, but for us, with the baby being only 8 weeks away, we decided that now would be the only good time to move for the next well, quite some time really.  So, we searched frantically for a new apartment and as it would turn out, we found a great 2 bedroom apartment in Rexburg a few blocks from our work and a few blocks from school and a few blocks from a park.  We had been wanting to get rid of stuff and just declutter our lives before the baby comes and it was perfect timing that we would have to move now because it is giving us a great opportunity to clean out pretty much our whole lives and get rid of a bunch of stuff!  Jared's parents are coming down to help us move and we always love visits from family and especially with me being as big as a whale and getting bigger by the day, it will be very helpful in the moving process.  We have plenty of wonderful friends down here too that have already volunteered to help us move as well which is such a blessing because I really don't want to go into labor while moving...not that I will, but who knows, it could happen.  So far this baby is a stubborn and single minded as both of its parents so if it is anything like either Jared or I in that way, who knows when this little baby will come into the world!!  I will be honest though, I really want to be done with this pregnancy...I know that it has been a very easy pregnancy in comparison to most pregnancies, but gaining 25 pounds in 7 1/2 months is not as fun as it looks.  I'm used to being relatively skinny and can't wait to get back into my cute pre-pregnancy jeans and all of the other cute clothes that I have hanging in my closet.  Plus the idea of being able to move around again like I used to makes me want to jump for joy!!  Jared has been so sweet about everything, and he even still thinks I'm beautiful and tells me all the time which makes each day much easier.  He also reminds me that I get a cute little baby out of the whole deal which makes me much happier about sacrificing my body until it is born, then back to being my skinny self shortly there after I hope!

Oh, the holidays!

Well, it has been far too long since I updated this thing, so I think it's about time!  Jared and I are both keeping extremely busy with school and work and other activities, aka...trying to have some what of a life.  We are both very excited to have next semester off, however Jared may take a class or two because they are not offered during the semesters he is usually in school. I'm defering next semester because our little cutie is due the week before finals week, so I didn't want to be in school and work lots and so that if there are any complications later on in my pregnancy, I don't miss a bunch of school.  Plus, I will be plenty ready and excited to get back to school next fall so that I can graduate next summer!!! YAY! I can't wait to get a 'big girl' job :) 
Baby is growing very well and so am I.  I found out what the sex of the baby is but Jared wants a surprise for the day its born so I am stuck with a very big secret.  But I'm getting pretty good at tricking him so that he has no clue.  It's kind of fun actually.  Anyway, that's about it.  We are going to Jared's Grandma's house for thanksgiving tomorrow.  We are sad that none of our immediate family could make it down here because of this crazy weather but we are sure they are much safer staying home since the roads were and still are so bad!  We will head home to Moscow for christmas so it will be nice to see family then.  

We're Pregnant!!

So as many of you have heard, we are expecting the first little addition to our family next spring!! My official due date is April 1st (april fools day, kinda cool due date if you ask me).  Anywho, we could not be more excited for our little family to grow! So far, from our first ultrasound, there is only one baby in there, but my belly seems to be getting bigger than I have heard that it should be at 12 weeks along.  Hopefully our next ultrasound will still only show one baby!  I feel very blessed because I haven't had hardly any morning sickness at all.  For a few weeks I had to keep something in my system pretty much all day everyday otherwise I would start feeling nauseous.  But other than that, I have been feeling really good and am getting lots of energy back.  We go in for our second appointment this coming friday to make sure everything with our little peanut is going really well!  I'll try and write more frequently and I will also put up more pictures and ultrasound pictures as we get farther along in the pregnancy! 

Livin' It Up

Well, it's been quite a while since I last posted something.  We are both working as supervisors for Pickett's Bambino in Rexburg and have finally decided to go on our honeymoon!!! We are going on a 7-night cruise to the Mexican Riviera at the end of August - which means we get to go to Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta.  We are really really excited to go and have fun together and be pampered for an entire week!! Woot.
We head home for a long weekend for my older sister, Cassie's, wedding on June 26 and get to spend some time with my extended family.  Not much else is happening for us right now, Jared is busy with work and school and I am mostly just keeping busy with work. 

Married Life

Wow! It's been a long time since I have posted something on here! Well, we have been married for a month today...seems like just a few weeks so time is flying by.  Married life is not quite what both of us expected but we are getting past our getting used to living with each other stage and it is getting a lot smoother!
Jared just found a job so he is getting into the swing of working again...he seems to be happier already...he likes to work (and I am ok with that). I am busy with school...my 7 credit EMT basic class is keeping me very busy but I enjoy everything about it so it is great!
Other than that, life is pretty good.  We have had a few fun outtings in the past month.  We stayed in Park City over the last three day weekend and had somewhat of a honeymoon, which was wonderful and fun exploring. We went and saw a bunch of people doing the skeleton at the Olympic park and that was quite a fun experience. 
This last weekend we went on a day hike at Clark Canyon Reservoir.  We walked across the ice (which was like three or more feet deep and looked really cool, but a bit scary in some places...then hiked up the island and ate lunch then headed home. It was a really sunny day and so much fun to get outside again! Although, we are both excited for winter because we like being outside but don't enjoy the snow and cold nearly as much as the sun!
Other than that all is well! We love our apartment and everything seems to be coming together really well! I will post pictures of our adventures soon hopefully! As well as some wedding pictures since I haven't done that yet either!

We are engaged and have set a date!!

We became officially engaged on October 10, its a cute story so I'll give the short version of it. 
If any of you are looking for a fun way to make out, try making out with mints, or (my new favorite as of yesterday) pop rocks, or ice cubes...you will love it trust me, plus, you are focused on what is in your mouth so you have to be very good at multi-tasking to even try and make any other moves. So basically it is perfect for mormon standard make outs. Anyway, so Jared and I were going to go on a night hike on R mountain a little ways outside of Rexburg and so we headed over there around 9:30 pm or little before to start the hike.  At the beginning of the hike, Jared mentioned that he had a mint along for us to share later on.  I didn't think anything of it because he had made a comment about my ring not being able to be made the way I wanted it earlier on in the day.  It was windy and kind of cold so we were both wearing lots of layers.  When we got to the top we were just walking around and I had told him way before that I hoped that he didn't propose in front of the temple because that is so unoriginal and kind of cheesy.  We got to a spot at the top where we could see the temple and we were just looking at the stars and laughing and having a good time and he said something about sharing the mint he had. So of course I was just fine with that idea.  He played this off perfectly.  It was dark, so all I heard was the crinkle of the mint wrapper and he popped it into his mouth and then passed it to me....well....it clinked on my teeth on the way in and let me tell you...that was no mint! I took the ring out of my mouth and he took it from me and got down on one knee and asked me to marry him.  Of course I said yes yes yes!!
Any who...cutest proposal I've ever heard. But we finally set our date and we have decided to get married on January 9th, 2010 in the Spokane, Washington temple. 
So exciting! But very stressful and busy...that with school and homework and wedding planning and trying to find a job. Quite the semester!