UPDATE OF THE LAST 4 MONTHS

...CHRISTMAS...
 Christmas this last year was SO fun.  We first had a family party for Braden's side of the family and we always have fun when we get together.  Games, food, and lots of laughs.  After the party we headed up to Heber to meet my family for our Christmas weekend.  I have worked Christmas Eve for the last 4 years so it was so nice to have an entire weekend off and not have to drive in a snow storm late Christmas Eve.  My parents rented a cabin there so the kids who work in Utah County would be able to go back and forth throughout the weekend for work instead of not being able to get together until Christmas Eve.  We had SOOO much fun, and that's an understatement.  We had a hot tub, 4 wheeler, pool table, TONS of snow, XBOX, food x's 10000, and the funnest group of people, you couldn't go wrong. There are seven kids in my family.   Kimee (24) is married to Landon, then Braden and I, my sister Jaimee is (21) and is married to Will, Branden (18), Sammi (15), Bailee (10) and little Hunter (7). All the kids slept up in the loft on Christmas Eve and had the Santa tracker app on for Hunter.  We were playing games while we all laid in bed and Hunter was getting pretty upset once Santa was in Denver and none of us were even trying to sleep.  He's my favorite. Christmas is so fun but is seriously MAGICAL when you spend it with kids.  This will be the last Christmas we have together before my brother leaves on his mission.  Having 5 sisters, you can guess this is a bit of an emotional roller coaster for all of us, we love our brother.  This Christmas we had 12 people, the next Christmas at my parents house will be my parents, Sammi, Bailee, and Hunter, quite a big change.  I made a prediction that the next Christmas we all have together will have an extra 5 people, you can do the math between grandchildren and maybe a wife or girlfriend for Branden :) 

Only missing a couple here

 

Hunter, Bailee, and Kimee playing Dance Central... it's a 2 player game so I'm not sure who thought they were playing but they really weren't!

 

JUST woke up bright and early on Christmas Eve

 
Braden's birthday was in February and we had a fun baseball themed birthday party and had a bunch of friends over. We had brats, peanuts and cracker jacks, everything to make you feel like you were at the stadium! Everyone wore sports memorabilia at Braden's request, we have the best friends!

 

 

 A couple weeks ago we took a much needed trip to Vegas with our friends.  It was seriously so much fun!  We just relaxed, shopped, went swimming, and ate and ate and ate.  I thank Heavenly Father every day for being blessed with such amazing friends. I can't express how thankful I am for them.

 

The only picture I took the entire trip was of Braden and I outside of church Sunday ha! 

Last night I unfortunately had to take a trip to the ER.  I haven't been breathing very good the last couple of days and then started feeling faint and getting chest pains.  I called my doctor's office and they said to go straight to the Emergency Room.  Of course I couldn't get a hold of Braden for about an hour and ended up meeting  him there. I was pretty shaken up  because I expected my doctor to just say, "The baby is just trying to squeeze in there so it's very common for pregnant women to experience problems breathing."  The doctor at the hospital explained to me that their main concern was blood clots.  He was using big words and I was trying to interpret what he was saying but all I caught was "And if you were to have a blood clot and die while delivering the baby, that would be a problem." ummm you think?!  He was going to run a test that he said would most likely come back negative and then I would be good to go.  Ran the test- positive.  The next 4 tests were all the same way.  The ones that we were hoping would come back positive, would come back negative, and vice versa.  After being there for 5 hours I was starving and starting to feel weak and nauseous. It was 11:00 at night and I hadn't eaten since lunch at 1:00 that day.  The ER was so busy so I tried not to be a burden but eventually I gave in and asked the nurse for something to eat.  She brought me back gold fish and saltines, not exactly what I was hoping but at that point I was happy with anything! My last test was a cat scan and for the 6th time that night I had to sign a paper that basically said "I won't be mad at you if my baby dies because of this test".  It's amazing how much we trust complete strangers.  Well the cat scan was SO weird! My blood felt like it was freezing one minute then boiling the next.  I had the yuckiest taste in my mouth and at one point felt like I had peed my pants!  (The guy who ran the test on me told me I would probably feel that but that I wouldn't really wet my pants, and even though he said that, I was still positive after that I did.) I had to wait just over an hour to get the results back from that and FINALLY got some good news.  The doctor said everything looked great .  He said a bunch of big words and the only ones I remember are "respiratory" and "inflammation", so make what you want of that!  He also said that I'm just a small person and she doesn't have much room and as a result, is pushing up on my diaphragm.  He prescribed some Lortab and told me to go to my doctor if I wasn't feeling better in a couple days, which works great because I already have my weekly appointment scheduled for the same day. He also told me that the problem is worse in the sitting position since she is compacted even more, so to try to avoid driving and sitting at a computer all day... Good thing I don't drive 30 minutes to and from work to sit at a computer all day!

 

 I am so happy that everything is alright and hope that the next month goes quickly so she can get big and get the heck out of me! With 2 baby showers, Easter, my birthday, Braden's graduation, and Braden running another half marathon, I have a feeling this month will be just like the last 8 and FLY by!

Braden graduates in 4 weeks and we will just apply for jobs everywhere.  I am very confident that if we are suppose to be somewhere this summer, we will.  I try not to feel stressed or overwhelmed when people ask me where we'll be living right after Harper is born and my response is that I haven't a clue.  But I do know this, BIG changes are coming for Braden and I, and I couldn't be more thrilled about it :) 

This is when I was about 6 months along so she's much bigger now and it's easier to see her move, but you can definitely tell she's in there!