New Baby!

So wow it's been a long long time since we've wrote on here. :) Ah well.

This August I had to get surgery again for my endometriosis. First, because we were having no luck getting pregnant (so we thought) and second, I was in a lot of pain again. So here rolls around my surgery date. Everything went great. He got rid of more endometriosis and then flushed my tubes to help with the pregnancy part. ;) About a week after my surgery I was completely sick. Morning, day and night. I was alway nautious and we just had no idea why. Finally, 3 weeks after the surgery I gave up and bought a pregnancy test. Things just seemed to be going in that direction. Could that surgery really have helped that quick? Well I took the test and immediately 2 pink lines! Oh my gosh!!!! We're actually pregnant. YAY! But wait I would only technically be 3 weeks along. This can't be right. I remember taking the test with Sam at about 5 weeks and the 2 pinks lines were barely visible and took awhile to show up. These lines were as bright as can be and were pretty much immediate!! Hmm.... To say the least I was really happy, but also a little confused. I called the doctor's office to let them know I was pregnant and we set the appointment up for about 6 weeks out. Man! I have to wait so long.

Well 3 weeks later some things started happening. I was still absolutely sick, but now my heart is pounding randomly, it's racing, and I'm even having heart palpitations. They told me to come in and of course I'm more than happy to come in. They were going to do an ultrasound and my doctor says, "We'll probably not even be able to see the baby. It's only 6 weeks along." I was thinking the same thing, but I needed some answers to why things didn't match up with this pregnancy and also why my heart is doing all this stuff. So we start the ultrasound and immediately finds the baby and it's no 6 week baby. It's not even the 9 week baby I remember seeing Sam at our first appointment with him. This baby had arms and legs! What??? Come to find out I'm 6 weeks further along. I'm 12 weeks. YAY! But then that brings a whole load of questions. How could this be? I had surgery while I was pregnant and he flushed my tubes!! We just sat there staring at this little baby, well huge to me, and wondered. We were both floored. We looked into every question and well this baby was just meant to be here at this time. We have no idea on some answers, but we know the baby is healthy and happy. We could see the baby moving all over the place. :)

It's funny now to think back on that day. I remember thinking I knew exactly how far along I was. I thought it so odd that I could already feel little movements. I was so so so sick!! And now I can just laugh about it and think to myself how happy I am that I just skipped 6 weeks. That's every pregnant woman's dream I would think.

Well on to other matters this pregnancy has been very different from Sam. I was only sick in the morning with him and then it was gone by my second trimester. Everything was pretty much simple with him. Well with this little baby I am sick constantly! Nautious, but never to the point of throwing up. I can never get relief. :( I have a somewhat overactive thyroid. The tests have all been so different. That's been awesome!! I already mentioned about my heart, but then when I went in to see the endocrinologist for my thyroid he then tells me I have a heart murmur. Wow little one what are you doing to my body? I am just now not worrying about everything and taking it as it is. I just can't wait to finally get some good news and find out what we're having.

My 20 week appointment finally arrives! I progress to tell my OB about the heart murmur and guess what? I now get to go to a cardiologist! How many doctors can I get sent to? He thinks that everything will be just fine, but he just wants to be sure. He doesn't want me going into heart failure on him. Well that was not the news I wanted. Let's get to the ultrasound. I want my good news!!! I feel pretty lucky though because they had a brand new machine and it's got some pretty neat things it can do. Well the ultrasound tech checks everything. The baby is healthy!! YAY! It's got all of it's organs and everything seems to be working great. So then since this was a brand new machine they had the expert do all the fun stuff. Like the 4D. It was amazing! They decided to do the head shot first and this baby already looks absolutely beautiful! The baby kept trying to hide. It would keep putting its arms in front of its face. So we watched the arms moving up and down. We even watched the baby roll around. So fun! We then went down to the legs. This baby has some long legs!! It was kicking its legs back and forth and just having a blast. I knew this baby was a mover. I can feel it all the time and this ultrasound just confirmed how active this little one is. :) Anyway now to get to the big news. We're having a GIRL!!! We're so excited!!! We kept telling Sam that he was going to have a sister. He seemed to enjoy watching the ultrasound at first, but then he got bored of watching the same thing over and over again, but I sure didn't!!! It's a girl and we're way happy. Now on to my favorite part. :)

We kept thinking about how we would tell Cherie, Mike's mom, cause we knew she would be so excited considering the first girl was born 8 years ago. After that came 7 boys. So, Mike kept throwing ideas around. We finally went with this. We walked in the house after making her wait all day which she told us she was getting a little impatient. :) I could just see her itching to know. She saw me holding the pictures and you could just see her wanting to rip them out of my hands. So Mike finally says, "Strike another one for the baseball team!" Mom then is quite happy and gives Mike a high five. Little does she know there's more to what Mike is going to say. After the high five he says, "Let's just hope they let girls on the team!" That got such a loud squeal out of mom! You could tell she was so excited. That then produced hugs all around. She couldn't stop smiling the entire time we were over. That was one of my favorite moments of the day. Mike and I talked about it the whole way home. We just kept thinking too bad we couldn't have taped that moment. We would watch it constantly! :) But at least we have a good memory.

So again we're having a GIRL! I just can't stop saying it and I definitely cannot stop smiling. We're really excited! YAY!!!

Halloween Firsts

Sam was a cute little pumpkin for his first halloween. He had so much fun! We went to our wards trunk or treat and we all had a blast. There were a ton of people there. It must be a whole neighborhood thing. Sam was having a lot of fun seeing all the kids in their costumes. He was laughing and smiling the whole time. He was so cute!

We then went to go visit Grandma and Grandpa so they could see Sam. He was showing off his rolling skills and had Grandma laughing at him. Then when Grandpa was holding him, Sam decided he really liked Grandpa and gave him 5 kisses in a row. It was adorable. Grandpa sure appreciated that. Sam also showed a new trick of his. He has learned the concept of crawling. He still prefers rolling, but he'll show you he can do it. :)

After Grandmas and Grandpas we went to Taco Bell for their Black Jack Taco and that was delicious. Then off to home and the moment we got home and sat Mike was out like a light. I guess he was tired from our fun Halloween day. So overall Halloween was fun for us and we had a lot of firsts.

Gut Splittin' Laugh and Other Life Updates

So, the other night Sam was refusing to go to bed (what's new) and was making some funny noises. I decided to mimic him and he thought it was hilarious. It was probably the hardest I have ever heard him laugh.

The next night I was making the same noise to him and he still thought it was funny. I started adding other sounds in and he just laughed twice as hard. We ended up getting a video of it, but I guess it's too big to post on here. We ended up posting it on Facebook instead so please run on over there and watch it. How can you not laugh when watching that video?

In other news, life is as busy as ever. I'm back in school being busy, busy and Amanda is still working (not as much) and loves spending so much time with Sam. He's growing soooo fast. It's strange to look back at photos even from the summer because he looks so much younger. His personality is really coming out. He's a fun-loving boy that enjoys spending time with his parents. I love coming home from school cause when he sees me, he gets the biggest grin.

His newest development is transportation. No, he can't crawl, but he'll roll with the best of 'em. We'll put him on the ground and the next thing we know, he's rolling across the floor trying to get something he sees on the other side of the room. Wow!

Finding Wii Controllers

Getting comfy & cozy

Sleeping in random areas

We also had our first bout with illness. A couple of weeks ago, Sam came down with croup. Talk about scary! It's never fun to wake up in the middle of the night and find your child struggling to breath. He ended up getting it twice, but he's now healthy again. Thank goodness!

Another piece of exciting news is that I'm for sure going to Israel with my choir next May! Wow, what an opportunity. I'm excited for the musical experience that it will be, but even more than that, excited to be able to spend some time in the land where Christ lived, where His miracles were performed, and where he wrought the atoning sacrifice for us. I've heard so many good things about that area and can't wait to experience it for myself.

Among everything that is going on right now and the many amazing things that are to come everything still seems the same. Although it does change everyday with having a child. We feel very grateful for everything we have, and just want to say thank you to all those who have helped us in our recent times of need.

Some Pictures

Here's the family on the morning that Sam was blessed. Isn't he adorable?

We caught a picture of him while he was sitting up. He's slowly mastering that skill as well.

Sam enjoying some 4th of July fun. He was sooooo happy that day!

ROLL-OVER

So about a week and a half ago Sam finally decided to roll over. It was actually pretty funny because when I went to get Sam out of his crib he was just lying on his stomach. I thought, "Well how'd he get there? I didn't put him there did I?" So I just thought nothing of it and just went on with the morning. But then later when he was just hanging out on the floor he rolled over. I was so excited that I put him back on his back to see if he'd do it again and sure enough he did. He ended up doing it two more times after that and on the last one ended up getting his arm from underneath him.

Today he has pretty much mastered this skill. I was at work today and I had him on his blanket and he kept rolling over and eventually was off the blanket and he would get all dirty because of course it's really hard to keep that floor clean. Anyway he just loves rolling over now and he can really get around. Not very far, but small distances with rolling and kind of scooting. He'll push his upper body up and then tuck his legs in and let go and voila he's moved a little bit.

It's so exciting to see him learn everyday. He's just so big and I'm loving every minute of being a mother. Hopefully I can keep everyone up to date more often. I've just been so busy. Being a mother keeps you very occupied. So mom, I want to say thank you for all those years you were occupied with me and for still being occupied with me. I LOVE YOU!!! I'm forever greatful for you. :)

Laughter

So, I must say that this was one of the greatest Father's day gifts I could have ever received: hearing my son truly laugh for the first time. I hope everyone finds just as much joy in this video as Amanda and I do!

Updates!

WOW! It's been awhile since being on here. I was just reading the singers blog and it seems like they are having a lot of fun. Oh how I miss Mike. At least I know he's having fun and is still alive. :) Not that I have anything to worry about.

Samuel continues to amaze me everyday. He loves to smile and he's starting to make noises and even kind of giggles. Oh it's so fun! I'm so glad I decided to have him now in my life. I'm glad I didn't wait. The past 6 weeks have been unbelievable. He is getting so big and he's just my joy!

Mike is in Europe and having the time of his life. He's had many concerts and MANY rehearsals so they can be ready for the competition. He's seen many great places and taken a lot of pictures. I can't wait to see them and hear the stories. I guess they are being received well though. Lots of people go to their concerts and they have many encores because people keep clapping and clapping. I'm glad he has this opportunity, but boy do I miss him.

As for me and what I'm doing. I'm just working and trying to stay on top of that, taking care of my beautiful boy, and spending lots and lots of time with my family. I absolutely love them so much. They have been such a support to me not only now, but have always been. I want to give a special thank you to Cherie for calling everyday and making sure I'm taken care of, doing good, and have a meal for dinner. I love you! Also to my mom for always hanging out with me and making sure I've got the things I need to keep Sam and I going. Thanks for the little play gym. He loves it! I love you mom.

So now I just get to wait everyday to talk to Mike over webcam and then anxiously await his arrival home. JUNE 3rd seems so far away, but it will come. At least it's less than 2 weeks. YAY!!! And when he gets home we get to have a birthday party for me and then we get to bless our little man on Sunday. It will be a great week and I can't wait!

Again thank you everyone for helping me out through this time. It means so much to me! :)