SO worth the wait!

After more than 3 years of hoping, praying, planning, and lots of faith and patience, we welcomed our beautiful princess Aurora Nicole (from now on known as "A"), into the world this morning at 12:36am, on 01-11-11, and she was 11 days early. What a great day to have a birthday!! She weighs 6 pounds on the dot, and is 18.5 inches. Welcome to the world, baby girl! Our family is already so much more complete with you here! WE LOVE YOU!

Proud daddy with his beautiful daughter
Getting loves from mommy :)
Stay tuned...more to come later :)

Sleep Talking

I know this is random, but I really wanted to get this recorded down while I still remember and still have some free time on my hands. :)

D & I are both sleep-talkers. We honestly haven't caught each other talking in our sleep in a while, but when we do we can get some pretty funny stuff out of each other. Here's a couple of our funny ones, and maybe they're just funny to us, but that's okay!

This is one of my funny ones, where D was awake and prompting the conversation:
K: Open scratch.
D: Huh?
K: Open scratch!
D: What's open scratch?
K: You know. Like in playing pool.
-I then woke up enough at this point to realize he was prompting me to talk in my sleep and that's the only time I've ever been angry at him. I really was just embarrassed. We'd only been married for a short time when this one happened. We laugh about it all the time now though, and will randomly say "open scratch" to each other. :)

Here's one of D's funnies from probably a year ago where I was awake and prompting the conversation:
D: Katrina wanted the particles.
K: Hmm?
D: Katrina wants the particles...In different layers...But they were going too fast...In different layers going down the stream. Mmm. Tired. (Then he kissed me.)
K: I know, babe. It's late.
-And he fell right back to sleep. I got out of bed and wrote that one down because I thought it was so funny! :)

It's amazing what our minds put together while we're asleep sometimes. One of my favorite things to study while working on my Behavioral Science degree was sleep patterns and sleep disorders. It's amazing how our bodies really don't function well when we're running on lack of sleep. But D & I sure like to catch each other talking in our sleep! Anyone else have funny stories?

P.S. D took that photo of the moon back in May 2009 at our family reunion through the lens of his telescope. Pretty cool, eh?

Sometimes it just makes sense!

This is kind of long, but probably worth reading :)

I've said it several times, but I'm going to say it again. I LOVE the Ensign magazine issued each month by my Church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As I was reading through some of the articles yesterday in the January 2011 issue, one article in particular stood out to me. It's written by an Apostle of God and is actually an excerpt from an address he gave to the faculty and students at Harvard University almost a year ago. The article is titled, "Fundamental to Our Faith" and is given by Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He talks about 3 fundamental premises of our faith that make us stand out from other religions. I absolutely LOVED this article, and really felt like I should share my thoughts. (To read the whole article click here.)

When talking about the 2nd fundamental point he brings up - the purpose of mortal life - one quote in particular stood out to me. Mostly because of the stage of life I am in right now, I guess, but also because I know that it's true. Elder Oaks states:

"Knowledge of God's plan gives Latter-day Saints a unique perspective on marriage and children. We look on the bearing and nurturing of children as part of God's plan and a sacred duty of those given the power to participate in it. We believe that the ultimate treasures on earth and in heaven are our children and our
posterity. . . .

"The power to create mortal life is the most exalted power God has given His children. The use of this creative power was mandated in the first commandment to 'be fruitful, and multiply' ".

I loved how he put that, and it reminded me of a thought that came to me about two weeks ago when I was pondering the sacred responsibility of parenthood. We all know that the earth has been around for a long time, and in that time a LOT of people have lived and died here. As a Latter-day Saint, I know that we lived in heaven before we came to earth. In heaven we knew we would come to earth to receive a body--one of the greatest gifts God could give us. And as part of receiving a body ourselves we would be given the opportunity to find a spouse and use the sacred procreative power from our Heavenly Father to give other spirits the opportunity to receive a body as well. What really struck me when I was thinking about this was how long Darwin and I have waited for the opportunity to become parents. We've lived for eons as spirits, and have only been on this earth for a short time. How long have we really been anticipating this sacred responsibility? And now in the next few weeks we're finally getting the opportunity we've been waiting so long for!

When I brought this up to Dar, he said it was a good point, but said too, "How long has this little spirit been waiting to receive her body?" Another good point. And I'm sure that receiving a body is something this little one has been waiting for for a VERY long time. :) I am so grateful to have the true Gospel of Jesus Christ in my life. I am so grateful for the testimony I have of the truthfulness of the Gospel. I am so grateful for the opportunity Dar and I have to become parents in the next few weeks, and for this little spirit daughter of our Heavenly Father finally getting the opportunity to receive her body.

To learn more about what we believe visit our Church website, lds.org.

Happy 2011!!

*Playing catch-up on blogging again, so scroll down to read the last 4 posts!*

We only got a couple of pictures from this New Year's Eve, but we had a great time celebrating with our friends. We ate lots of yummy food, played fun games and just enjoyed being together to welcome in the new year!

Yeah, we're nerds, but it's fun!

And just for kicks, here's my 37 week photo. Can't wait to meet this little girl!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

*Another baby update for anyone interested*
At our 36 week appointment last Monday, little Rori's heart rate was still low so my doctor sent me in for another non-stress test for double reassurance. The result was the same--she has a low base heart rate at about 115. The doctor at the hospital reviewed the results and said he wanted me to have an ultrasound done because I hadn't had one since 19 weeks when we found out we were expecting a little girl. So, we went for an ultrasound. (Luckily Dar was with me this time.) From the ultrasound they found that everything was measuring right where it should be, except for her abdomen. Apparently we have a skinny baby. They estimated her weight at 5.1 pounds and said her abdomen was measuring between the 5th and 10th percentile (measuring at 33 weeks instead of 36 weeks). It was a little nerve wracking to hear that because the doctor at the hospital told us if she had measured below the 5th percentile they would induce me that day! Holy cow! Wake up call!! Luckily she measured above that and is still sitting toasty warm inside me for the time being. So, thanks to our skinny little girl, I'm having to go in for non-stress tests twice a week now until we deliver. It's been reassuring each time I go for the NSTs though that everything that could be worrisome is measuring where it should be--the amniotic fluid, her blood flow, her movements, etc. And, at the last couple of tests her base heart rate has increased a little bit, which is comforting too. Silly little girl.

At my 37 week appointment yesterday I was dilated to 2.5 centimeters and 80% effaced. Making progress!! It's so stinkin' nice to know we get to meet this little girl in just a few short weeks! Bring it on!!

Christmas 2010

This year we spent Christmas just with Dar's family. We decided that it's more relaxing for us and more enjoyable if we spend each holiday with one family, rather than both, like we have done every Thanksgiving and Christmas since we got married. So we started the switch-off this year and it really was more relaxing not having to travel back and forth between family activities. We missed my family, but look forward to spending Christmas with them next year!

A couple days before Christmas Dar & I put together treat plates to bring to our neighbors. We made candy-cane cookies and chocolate dipped pretzels. Mmm!

Our delicious Christmas morning breakfast--red and green waffles!

Santa came!!

The stockings all hung in a row

Andrea & Sean

Georgiana taking a picture of me

Opening presents!!
We always open presents starting with the youngest. A diaper bag for the baby having a baby :)

Andrea checking out her new "safety glasses" and tools.

Dar got a changing pad and cover. We're liking the baby stuff!

Sean got Truman Madsen's "The Eternal Christ"

Arabian Nights book for Geo

Ryan got a computer programming book

We thought the tag was so funny :) Very creative, Dad!

And the tag was totally relevant because Mom got an iPhone for Christmas! Welcome to the world of cell phones! :)
Dad got a CD he wanted
Official Christmas photo of 2010

We also went as a family to visit Dar's grandma and his older brother to watch his kids open some presents. We ate lots of yummy food and had a fun time relaxing!! We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas too!!

Snow!!!

Even though Utah has the "greatest snow on Earth", we honestly don't get really cool snow storms very often, except for in the mountains. Usually it's only an inch or so in the valley, if we're lucky. But, we had a special treat when Mother Nature surprised us a couple of days before Christmas! Between two days of snowfall we got about 2 feet of snow here in the valley! Dar & I absolutely LOVED it!! I didn't get to play in it as much as he did (seeing as my whale of a belly is prohibiting certain activities at the moment). Dar got to clear snow at his parents house and he spent about 6.5 hours between the two days clearing snow--using a shovel and a snow blower. He's such a hard worker!! Even though I wasn't helpful, I sat outside with him the whole time and cheered him on :) It really was nice to spend some time outside, watching the beautiful snow come down.

Snowfall - Day 1

I couldn't bend over to put my boots on, so my sweetheart did it for me. What a trooper! :)

Just getting started!

Whipping out the snow blower!
Enjoying being outside in the snow!!
When he finished clearing snow, he decided it was time to build a snowman. The snow was perfect for it! He started the bottom ball in the corner of the backyard and rolled it around the house up to the front yard. It was seriously HUGE! It got really heavy pretty fast too, but he kept at it and about half an hour later got it to the front yard. I'll have to post the videos once I get them uploaded. It really was hilarious to watch!
Final resting place
1 more snowball to go!
Look how tall it is!! And he did it all alone...sorry I wasn't any help, babe!
What a cute snowman!
The finished product!

Snowfall - Day 2
Look how pretty! Talk about "Winter Wonderland"Day 2 of shoveling. We had about twice as much snow as the day before.
A tree in the backyard snapped from the weight of the snowfall overnight. Dar was trying to revive it, but it may be a total loss.
Look at all that beautiful snow!!
Dar was trying to prevent more trees from breaking by shaking the snow out. Luckily he never got hit by the shovel on its way back down :)
Snow up to my knees!
Taking a rest from clearing snow out of the trees
And since he hadn't eaten snow since he was a kid, he decided it was a good day to do it again! :)
Such happy snow people! We LOVED it!!

Still alive, no baby yet!

I've had several concerned people (who don't see me very often) ask me if we had the baby already since I haven't blogged in a while. Haha. Nope. No baby yet. I just had my hubby home with me for two weeks for Christmas vacation and haven't been on the computer much, so I'm officially behind on my blogging. But having him home with me for two weeks was pure HEAVEN!! I was so sad to send him back to work this morning. So, here goes to catching up on the last few weeks. I think I'll put several different posts up, so bear with me!

First things first:

Provo Tabernacle burned down--VERY sad day!!

I drove up to work with Darwin the morning of Friday, Dec 17th to meet up with an old friend for lunch and one of Dar's colleagues who carpools with him told us the Tabernacle was on fire. We could totally see the huge plume of smoke from the freeway. So sad!! Dar and I drove by a couple days later to check out the scene and take some pictures of the historic event. As sad as it is, it's still historic. We couldn't get very close to take pictures because they had the roads surrounding the Tabernacle blocked off so the firefighters could work. We've driven past a few other times, and the entire building is gutted and the whole roof collapsed. We're just keeping our fingers crossed that the Church plans to rebuild it as close to the original structure as they can. It was such a beautiful building!!

Baby Update

We only have 5.5 weeks until our due date & we are both so very anxious to meet our little princess!! I went for my 34 week appointment yesterday, and everything looked great for the most part--baby is measuring right on schedule--except our little munchkin's heart rate was a little lower than we wanted it to be yesterday so my doctor sent me to the hospital today to have a non-stress test done just to check the baby out and make sure everything is okay. Unfortunately Dar was at work but it was nice for me to be able to see our sweet baby girl on the ultrasound again, although it wasn't a very good look at her like our last ultrasound since the nurse was mostly checking to make sure I have sufficient amniotic fluid. I was a little bummed that we didn't get any pictures this time but it was nice to get a 2nd confirmation that we are definitely having a girl! And I seriously loved getting to listen to her little heartbeat for over 1/2 hour straight. I got to see her little diaphragm moving like it should be, and it was especially comforting to get the reassurance that everything is okay. Her "low" heart rate isn't something we need to be concerned about because apparently her resting heart rate is just on the lower end of "normal" and everything looked good. Now we just play the waiting & nesting game for the next few weeks until we get to meet our long awaited addition!

For the most part I'm still feeling pretty good. Moving around is becoming more of a challenge as my tummy takes charge & I do have aches and pains, but luckily not all the time. I really feel like I can't complain, especially when I think about friends who have had much harder pregnancies than this one has been. People are so nice when they tell me I look small for being as far along as I am, but I honestly feel HUGE and we still have more than a month of growing to do!! I'm still having braxton hicks contractions occasionally (they started about a month ago) but nothing consistent, although they are getting stronger than they were when I first started feeling them. And, overall I'm just expecting our sweet baby girl to come after our due date, just so I'm not disappointed if she doesn't come on or before. Her bedroom is just about set up, although we may not finish it until after she's born since she'll be sleeping in a bassinet in our room for the first little while. But I guess to sum it all up, we can't wait to meet her!! To kiss her little hands and cheeks, to see her beautiful eyes and know that she is ours. To feel like our family is even more complete. We already feel so blessed to have this little one in our family, even if we haven't had the chance to meet and hold her just yet.