THE BEST SOUVENIR EVER!

One thing I failed to mention about our cruise, our BMT (baby making trip). It was a success. I’m finally going to be a mommy like so many of you out there. I am 12 weeks along now. Due September 29th. We couldn't be happier.

I had been feeling really tired from the day we got home. Darrik had speculated that I was probably just experiencing jet lag or left over tiredness from our trip. We had partied pretty hard. I also had this insanely happy feeling when we got home. Just content and smiley for no reason. I am some what affected by the weather, especially the sun. I assumed my abnormal amount of happiness had something to do with the fact that we had just spent seven days in direct sunlight. Little did I know I had a new little spirit inside me.

We then had to decide when we were going to tell our parents, family and friends. We were going to wait one month to tell everyone. Two days later I asked Darrik what the big deal was, why couldn’t we tell everyone now? We decided we would tell everyone that Sunday. Paige was getting home from her mission on Saturday and I couldn’t wait any longer to tell. I thought it best not to steal her thunder the day she got home, that we would wait a day to share our good news.



I didn’t want to just say, “hey, guess what? We’re pregnant.” So Darrik and I thought of creative ways to tell our family. We decided to play hang man. I drew two sets of hang man on both sides of a poster board. We started with one that said, “We’re so glad Paige is home.” Kacie guessed the whole thing after two letters were called out. So I flipped the paper over and we began on the back with a new puzzle. This one was a bit tougher, ten words long and the words had many letters as well. They guessed letters and waited as I filled in the blanks. About half of the blanks were filled in, but it wasn’t making sense until the letter ‘N’ was guessed. As I completed some of the words my mom shouted out, “Congrats grandparents and aunts, there’s a bun in the oven.” Everyone looked at me shocked and excited. They stood up, started screaming and ran towards me. My sister’s surrounded me in a group hug. My mom was crying, and my dad was doing the classic bitter beer face, trying not to cry. Everyone was so excited. Cortney especially, she’s been waiting to be an aunt for a long time. It was a very special day and we are so happy to be parents one day very soon!


I had my first doctor's appointment at what I thought was 8 weeks. The doctor confirmed that I was pregnant and that I was 9 weeks and 4 days along, almost 10 weeks. We saw our baby for the first time. A little angel with a big heart. I've heard about this moment, but it's an incredible one to experience. You could totally tell that it was a baby on the screen, you could see a head with a brain, a little body, arms and legs, and tiny little fingers and toes, and a beating heart. What a tender mercy from the Lord. Another thing the doctor found was a cyst on my left ovary. He said not to be too worried about it, but we need to come back in 2 weeks instead of 4 to make sure it's not getting any bigger. If it does get any bigger they will have to remove it. A little scary, but I got a beautiful blessing from Darrik and we know everything will be okay. We are so grateful for this great experience and this amazing journey we are on.