I'll never live in Vegas.

Upon returning home from my mission, I was unsure of the plan I needed to make for my life. I didn't know whether to stay in Austin, move back to Utah, or move somewhere else and start an adventure.

I remember talking with T about this one day on the phone.I was so confused and just wanted to be in the right place. T had mentioned I could move to Vegas. I laughed. I told him, "Look, I think it would be fabulous to be close to you and we could hang out etc. But, I have been to Vegas, and well, I'm not really fond of it. Perhaps I'll move to Utah and we could just visit each other?"

Like I'd EVER move to Vegas, I thought. T and I were just friends who talked on the phone daily. We weren't dating. Nor did I think we WOULD (at that time). I did however, think it was cute that he'd mention it a few times. I knew he liked me. So, I began making plans to move to Utah. I started looking at apartments, jobs etc. I found great places! But, nothing seemed to feel "right". I would find perfect roommates, but it didn't settle. I talked with T about this and he was understanding and just assisted me in the process. I knew though, that I would be moved by the 1st of March. It just felt "right".

Oh how I love those feelings. I did move that last weekend in February. Not to my own place in Austin, not in Utah, but it was, however, a location I had never lived before and I would be starting my very own new adventure.

I moved to Las Vegas, Nevada. Known as "Sin City", "hot and windy summers" and a very touristy city. That's all I knew of it.

My Dad and I packed my Scion Xb up with anything I'd possibly need. On the road we went. 1,300 miles. 24 hours on the road. I was determined to make the drive so I could see my baby.

My Mom and younger brother J, had flown into Vegas and made it before we did. THEY got to see T before I did! I was totally jealous! haha T had been working nights and had to work that night we got in. So we pulled up to the hotel and I ran in, finding him asleep on the bed taking a nap. I was finally in HIS city. We had 6 weeks to go before the wedding. Things started settling in now. I was getting married to one of the most incredible men. I felt so blessed.

That weekend we told T's parents about us driving in and they hopped in their car from LA, California and headed on their merry way to see us. We not only discussed wedding plans, but had many laughs as we were able to reunite from so many years.

The boys didn't seem to be having too much fun as we discussed plans. Well, they tried.
Our parents were so excited to reunite, especially for the happy occasion!


T and I, were happier than anything to be in the same city!

After many hours of planning the wedding, we decided to all go out to dinner and celebrate. Down on the strip at an Italian Restaurant named Maggianos.

Apparently being on your phone was the popular thing to do!

As the Dad's caught up on life together, R laughed at some jokes and Mom pondered. Probably wondering how we were going to afford everything at the wedding!

It was a lovely time together. It was joyful and exciting! No one would have ever guessed that the two families would ever be brought back together for such a wonderful adventure!

Engagement photos

Friday February 20th 2009

Because our wedding was only a mere 7 weeks away, we decided it was time to get things rolling! It was a perfect time to get our engagement photos out of the way. My amazing sister in-law, L, said that she would be happy to take them, edit them then have a friend print them. Thank goodness for L because if it weren't for her, we would have had a hard time finding anyone!

My younger brother wanted to take some pictures too, just for fun! Here are some fun, unedited, in the moment shots!

L told T to bite down so his jaw muscles would show. I was doing it instead in this picture! Lol!

Here, you can see T is actually doing it. Yes, good job, T! We praised him.


He obviously did not like the praising, so we all laughed as he made this face:


Oh he loves me so! One of my favorite pictures here!

We took some more photos on some rocks, they were a bit funny and this is one of my favorites.

Here are a few pictures that L took, edited and I love them!

Here is the photo that won our vote and was sent in the announcements/invites!

It was such a relief to know we had our photo picked and ready to go!

I.Love.You., "Marriage" & Meet me at the airport garage

After our fun little time alone at the theater, we decided to head back to our neighborhood. We wanted to still be alone since our time was so little and oh so very very precious.
We went to our neighborhood park, it was dark, beautiful, spring weather and we just sat on the picnic tables and reminisced our fabulous time together. It was seriously the perfect moment. I felt like we were in a movie. You know, as a little girl, you always dream having those little romantic moments like they do in the movies. Well, I had mine. As I leaned against the edge of the table, T stood in front of me holding my hands, looking into my eyes. We shared with each other how much we did not want him to leave. We shared our feelings, and came to a conclusion that we didn't care that we would be 2,000 miles apart. We would make this relationship work! (I swear, I kept looking around us to see if there was anyone filming us we were so gosh dang cute! It should have been a scene in a movie!) We decided that we would take turns flying out to see one another. That seemed like a great plan...

Until morning!

Saturday, February 14th, 2009.
We woke up, had breakfast, spent the time together cuddling and being in love. Then the dreaded moment arrived where I had to take him to the airport. We left a bit early so he wouldn't have to rush off inside. We parked the car in the garage and just sat and chatted. Not too much later and he leaned over, kissed me softly, looked me in my eyes and said those most 3 precious words every girl drools over. "I Love you, C." There was a pause. I responded. "I have been waiting a few days to hear that. I love you too!" Which was of course, followed by another sweet kiss.
It was so wonderful, to know, that we both had the same exact feelings for one another. It sure makes things a lot easier while dating! haha
It was a bit painful to see him go. But, we knew we'd see one another soon enough.

We of course continued to talk, when he got home that evening, and, then... Sunday arrived. I talked to him later that evening and told him that I made my mind up. "I'm going to move to Vegas", I told him. He was shocked, felt reluctant to let me say so. I told him, that we obviously wanted to be in a relationship, and it would be silly to spend all that money flying back and forth just to see each other for a few short days. I had nothing holding me back in Austin and all I knew and wanted was, to be with him. Simply put. He agreed and we began that hunt for finding me a place to live. We were joyous in figuring all of this out. You know, time was short. He was deploying later that year in July for 6 months. We wanted to make the best of what we had.

Then...Monday arrived. We spoke that evening on how much we cared for one another and that we couldn't wait to be together again. Somehow along our 4 hour length phone conversation we came to a point where, we were both hesitant. We always played this game where we'd ask "What are you thinking", where the person then has to respond exactly what they are thinking no matter what. Well, I asked T that question and he answered the following. "I'm just not sure. I don't want to scare you off. But, I believe that you might be thinking the same exact thing." I commented, "Yes...I think you might be right. Go on..." T says, "It starts with an 'M'"...*my heart starts being really fast, I feel butterflies soaring through ALL of my body* I respond, "Yes...??", he says, "Well C, I guess we just need to figure out if we get married when I return home from deployment or get married before".

WOOHOO!!!!!!!!! He totally read my mind. My gosh, when I heard that, I just wanted to giggle/scream/laugh/jump for joy! Of course I wanted to marry him! I wanted to marry him the very next day!
Even though we had already spoken for SEVERAL hours on the phone, I just knew that it wasn't ending any time soon!
We started discussing details. Who do we tell right away? When do we plan it for? Where shall it be? Etc etc.
It was already around midnight, so I knew that if there was any one person that could help us figure it all out, it would be my Mother. I ran in her room to grab her, she hadn't been sleeping because she knew I was in love and she was just too happy for me! She came in, sat on my bed, and we put T on speaker. We told her we thought that April 11th would be a good date, but we wanted to make sure we would be able to plan a wedding by then. My Mother, I'll have you know, has put together beautiful weddings, partys, events, you name it, within a days notice! I knew she'd be the one to tackle this project. When we asked her, she said, "Are you kidding? Let's do it next week!" haha We already knew we wanted it in the SLC, Utah Temple.
We asked her to keep it "hush-hush" so we could tell everyone. T wanted to make sure to get my Dad's approval before though.

Thursday came around and my Mom and I went to get our hair done. That day, I had called and booked our slot at the Temple to get married. 11am April 11th, 2009. Finally, T was able to call my Dad and ask him. After my Dad said yes and gave him his blessing, my Dad asked when and where were we thinking. T hesitated and said, "Well, C actually booked the temple already and we're getting married April 11th" lol My Dad said, "Well, thanks for letting me know!"
Afterwards my Dad called me and said, "Hey, what are y'all doing in April? Because I want to take our family on a cruise. Say...April 11th? Nobody has plans right?" hahaha He's such a stinker! I told him he could still take us out on a cruise another day!

My Mom felt so bad that we were celebrating our love and engagement so far away. So we went home, she booked T a flight and he came out that very night to see me! You can imagine our joy as we met once again, at the airport garage.

Returning to *our* story. Day 2

So back to our love story. I'm sure y'all are just on the edge of your seats waiting for the rest of this! You can only imagine our excitement and anticipation to see each other the following morning. T had slept in my brother's room who is on a mission and I slept in my room. I woke up the next morning and quickly made myself look presentable. Yet to my horror, yes, to MY horror, I looked in the mirror I have in my room and about fell to the ground unconscious.

My lips were BLUE. I thought "what the heck is on my lips?!" I tried wiping it off and nope, it didn't come off. I then realized that it was from some soft kisses T left me with the night before. I guess my skin was just that sensitive having been a while since I had kissed somebody! haha

Horrified, I text T to ask him what in the world I needed to do. I could NOT have my family see this. You can imagine, my hands were so shaky and sweaty. I was so nervous. He text me back laughing saying I should put on black lipstick. Yeah, like THAT was going to hide it! haha (I didn't own any black lipstick anyway.) Panicking, I went through all my make up and tried to cover it up. Let's just say, it was a pretty funny looking set of lips.

So we meet downstairs for breakfast. My Mom is standing in the kitchen and my younger brother J is at the table. Not even 3 min downstairs my Mom comments from across the room "C, what happened to your lips? It looks like you have something on them. Did you eat something?" I tried so hard to avoid it and said I was trying on new lipstick. She thought I was weird.

Throughout the day she kept asking me over and over again, "..seriously C, what's with your lips?" I just wanted her to stop asking! haha I'll get to the rest of this blue lips story later on.

After breakfast, T and I went on a hike in our Preserve in our neighborhood. We had so much fun as we followed the trail to a small waterfall and sat on the rocks in the little river-bend. We talked so much and just had a blast. This is when T mentioned that he could talk to butterflies. haha Oh my gosh, he has to be one of the funniest people I have ever met in my life. (Don't worry kids, we don't have a Dr. Dolittle on our hands!)

That evening we had plans to meet up with my Dad at Dave & Busters in Austin. As we were finishing getting ready for the night, I was in my Mom's bathroom with her helping her do her hair and getting all dolled up, she said, "Now C. I think it's so funny your lips are blue. But I really am stumped as to why they are that way! Did you fall and get hurt?"

I swear my Mom was playing dumb! I thought for sure she read right past that and was just trying to get it out of me. I start laughing and say "Mom. Think about it. My*LIPS* are blue. They aren't hurt..." ****LIGHTBULB**** "Ohhhhhhh....." my Mom says. "Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry! I really didn't mean to draw so much attention to them! I seriously had no idea!" I laughed and told her it wasn't a big deal but that it was sort of embarrassing. We laughed so hard. I told her not to tell my Dad.

Mom, T, J and I get to D&B's first, then my Dad shows up from work. We are sitting at the booth and he sits across from me and seriously one of the first things he says to me with this confused look on his face, "C, you have something on your lips". I start laughing. Silently. Then I just try to ignore it. Now that the attention had already been brought to it, I couldn't stop giggling! My Dad looks back at me and with this continued confused face says "No, seriously C. You have like blue ink on your lips." "C, I mean it. You have pen on your lips." Finally, my mom interrupts and says "S, stop." Then he stopped. haha I never confessed to him till the night before our wedding.

Dinner was wonderful and so much fun. Then after we ate we went and played on all the games they had, boxing, shooting, wave runners..you name it and they had it. I love playing arcade games there!

Afterwards, my family went back home and left us to go see a movie. We went and saw Coraline in 3D.

Here is the only picture we took that whole weekend. This is in the theater. Seriously! How silly of us not to take more. This was taken on his cell phone so it's not the greatest quality. But, this is the weekend that true love took over.

And so the pregnancy journey continues...

I was doing pretty good as far as feeling great up until about week 6/7. Exhaustion, no appetite, throwing up, nausea, more exhaustion, and so forth. I thought it would never end.

Yet, it did. About week 18 is when things started calming down and week 20 I started feeling like a normal human being. Thank goodness! I felt so bad for T because I'd come home from work and just be so sick and tired. Thank goodness he has been the biggest sweetheart in the world and has taken care of the things I haven't, plus some.

Usually, at the hospital we go to, we weren't suppose to find out the sex of the baby until our sonogram at week 20. Yet, we cheated. We paid to have a 3D/4D ultrasound done. Best $80 we spent! It really brought things into perspective as we could see her. I didn't believe it. I asked the lady if they were just playing a video feed of someone's baby and pretending it was mine. She said "shake your belly", so I did. The picture went all wobbly and shaky. Well, I guess it's real then! We were told that this company has a policy that if they are wrong with the gender they will refund in full. They are pretty confident in their skills.
It was pretty funny because T asked the lady not to blurt out what the gender was, he wanted to be prepared. So when the lady found the perfect view, she had us guess. T says "That's definitely a boy right there. I can see it." I didn't want to say anything! lol I didn't want to be wrong! haha So, as we all know now, the baby is a girl! We were so excited! I felt assured because all along I felt like the baby was a girl but was nervous to say anything because I didn't want my "motherly instincts" to be wrong that soon! lol

Another funny story, when we went to the hospital and they did our sonogram, she said she wasn't "sure" if the baby was a boy or girl. Therefore, I am even more grateful we paid for an u/s to have a guaranteed answer! We have had another 3D/4D ultrasound that reconfirmed our baby is indeed a girl!

Since the very beginning I have been so anxious to start showing. I thought at week 16 that I was showing for sure. I look back at that photo and laugh, because I still look tiny as ever. You can imagine my excitement when I started getting random strangers saying "Oh, so how far along are you?" "Is it a boy or girl?" etc. I beamed knowing people could tell I was pregnant. Although those comments didn't start coming till about week 24, I didn't care. It was all worth the wait.


Oh! As I began to feel movements in my belly, T and I decided we wanted to buy a doppler (For those of you who don't know, a doppler is used to hear the baby's heartbeat.) , so we found one on amazon and were so excited to use it! It was a great way for us to connect to the baby and for T to have a part of this time of the baby's growth. Just today, we tried an experiment. T laid his ear on my belly and heard my heart beat, then he moved a little and could hear a heart beat significantly faster than mine. Then this cute little girl started kicking him in the head. :)

This whole pregnancy has been so amazing. Week by week it's incredible to think there's a little human growing in my body. I love this little girl more than I can express. It's so wonderful feeling her little body inside of mine, she'll kick out, push out, and I can feel different body parts. It's seriously a miracle. I never take one moment for granted. I thank our Heavenly Father every chance I remember for this little miracle.

I can't believe I am 30 weeks pregnant already! I have less than 10 weeks before she will be here. We can't wait. We have decided on a first name, and are pretty sure on the middle, but it's possible we might change it. So as of right now, her name is E.

I am going to include some photos. I'll share some belly photos and a few of the ultrasounds. I hope you enjoy!

16 weeks 18 weeks 2 days

19 weeks 2 days 20 weeks 1 day

21 weeks 2 days 22 weeks 1 days

23 weeks 2 days 24 weeks

27 weeks 28 weeks 30 weeks

E at 18 weeks E at 26 weeks 3 days

Changing things up a bit...

I decided that I need to make a post about our little one that is on her way! Because I have been so focused on making this blog start from the beginning of "our" time, I have been slacking and before I know it the baby will have come and I might forget some very important details.

So, if you don't mind, I am going to make this post and dedicate it to our baby girl we are so patiently waiting for.

T came home from Iraq January 31st 2010. After 6 months of being separated I think it's fair to say that being together again was one of the most incredible feelings. I never want to have to go through a deployment again, however, I am sure we will and at that time I will put on my BGP's (Big Girl Panties) and get my game face on. Until then, we will just enjoy our lives together each and every moment.

At this time when T came home we set up our place and were just looking forward to living life. Then an opportunity came up for T at work. If he were to take this year long commitment (with some not so great circumstances) that he would be un-deployable and would be made sure to be home at least a full year before even being considered to deploy. (If he didn't take this job offer, he could have deployed 6 months after being home.)

After he accepted the opportunity we began to think. We had discussed having a baby before but we both had felt in the past that we didn't want T to miss out on the whole experience of the pregnancy and possible birth of the baby so we were putting that off till it seemed right. We told family and friends that we weren't going to have a baby for at least 4 years. :) (Oh you know how excited people get when a couple get married. "When are you having a baby?!" "Are you pregnant yet?!" etc)

We then realized what a great time it would be to have a baby. A FULL year home??? If we were lucky enough to get pregnant right away then he would be able to be around for the full 9 month pregnancy, birth and at least the first few months of baby's life. It sounded great! But we were still iffy about it. So we took it to the Lord. We prayed and prayed then fasted some to receive an answer if we were to have a baby. Then we decided that "hey, if there is a baby ready to come RIGHT NOW, then we will get pregnant." So we took that faith and went with it.

I'm sure that every couple has felt the same emotion as we did as we were attempting the whole "getting pregnant". The timing, anticipation and worry that comes with it all. I began to realize the reality of "what if we can't conceive?" That began to really scare me, worry me to the point that I was afraid to try. After discussions with T, I realized that it was all in the Lord's hands and if it happened to be that I couldn't conceive or would have a miscarriage, it was all because the Lord had it planned that way and we would then go with different options. T is very good about keeping me in the "now" and not letting me get ahead of the situation, or myself.

April 7th 2010, T had just left that morning to go to work. After he left I started to realize that it was about time I could take a pregnancy test. So after much debating, I decided to take the test. (Lesson learned, probably should wait for when your spouse is home to do these sorts of things. But I was so nervous of it being negative that I didn't want to be disappointed WITH T being there.) I about hyperventilated as I waited those few minutes for the results. As you can guess, it was positive! I jumped up and down! I was thrilled! I quickly came up with an idea on how to tell T. I decided I'd go up to his work that night (at this time he was staying the night up at work) with some dinner, sparkling apple cider and cute glasses. I drove the hour up there and he was so confused why I was there. lol So I broke the news to him and this is how it went:

Me: *Pulls out sparkling apple cider and glasses that were hidden in the back seat*
"Alright babe, it's time to celebrate!"
T: *Confused look on face* "Celebrate what? Our anniversary? It's not for another 4 days..."
Me: *smiles* "No, silly.....because we're going to have a baby! I'm pregnant!"
T: *even MORE confused look on face* "You're not pregnant."
Me: *laughs* "Yes baby, I am. I took the test this morning"

It took a bit convincing and I even took the test to show him. lol Needless to say we were thrilled and it was quite a change to our emotions that night.

I guess-ti-mated my due date to December 14th. So at my 11 weeks mark I had an appointment out on base. We were able to have an ultrasound and to hear the baby's heart beat. Heart beat was strong and at 160. Here is a picture of the cute little bean as we called it.

There it is. So tiny and precious. You can see a little head, body, legs and arms. It was a start to an amazing journey.

Our first day together

February 12th 2009. T flies into the Austin Bergstorm Intl. Airport.

Oh man I can't tell you how nervous I was. I arrived at the airport probably an hour before his schedule landing because I didn't want to be late. I prayed and prayed that we could have the same relationship in person as we did via telephone.
I then saw him coming down the escalator. It was like light was shining down from the heaven's on to only him. ha ha I'm totally kidding. He did look amazing though! He had a gorgeous red rose in his hand and a backpack. We hugged, and went to the carousel to get his bag. He mentioned to me how he hates flying. So the fact that he flew over 3 hours to see me made it even that much more special.

I made him drive, I figured he'd like that. Being the man an all. So as we drove back to my parents house we talked and talked. Mostly about how amazing it was that he was actually there in person and it felt like we had always been around each other. Also, you could tell there was a bit of hesitation, like we were both a little nervous around each other. ;-)

6th Street.

We got to my house where my parents, oldest brother, his wife and 4 kids, then my younger brother were waiting. T was pretty nervous to meet everyone! Although he had known them when he was little. We ordered pizza, hung out and chatted with everyone. It was pretty casual. So after we spent time with the family catching up, T and I headed downtown to the famous 6th Street. We needed some alone time away from family!

(For those of you that aren't familiar with this famous street, it's in a way comparable to the Strip in Las Vegas. It has lots of live music, clubs, bars, restaurants etc. Oh and a great place to people watch! ha ha )

As we walked up and down 6th street, I, for some reason kept walking a few paces ahead of T. He would laugh and say how I was walking too fast. I just said "This is how I walk, so keep up!" with a giggle of course. (I was used to that quickly paced missionary walking) So after many attempts of T trying to get me to slow down, he finally (FINALLY) put his arm around me to hold me close to him. (I know, way cute, right? ha ha ) From that moment on we walked totally in-sync (as in we'd both step with our right foot, then left all simultaneously) and even the stop lights were in-sync with us (ha ha) the light would be green or turn green as we approached it. It was pretty cool. We ended up walking to the Capitol and I took him on a little tour inside to check out the beautiful architecture and how if we stood in a certain spot in the center of the building on a star, the acoustics were tweaked so we could whisper yet still hear each other as if they were standing right next to your ear. Pretty sweet!

Austin Capitol.

After the tour, we walked outside and found a bench to sit on. We sat and talked. Then we cuddled. And we had a really fun time just having our wonderful conversations yet in person. I accidently dropped my keys and T bent down to get them, yet so did I. So I ended up hitting him in the head. Whoops! After a couple hours of chatting on the bench we finally had our first kiss. Awwww. I know. I'm leaving it at that though. No more details! ha ha I don't kiss and tell. ;)

Afterwards, we headed back home and chatted some more and watched a movie. Then we called it a night to a perfect first day together.