20 Weeks

Last week, we went to
our 20 week doctor's appointment. It went really well! It was so fun to see her
again. I just love getting ultrasounds. She is such a little wiggler-she didn't
stop moving at all the entire time! We got some really cute pictures. I was a
little disappointed with the 3D ultrasound picture that we got. She was facing
inwards and wouldn't stop wiggling, so we couldn't get a very good shot of her,
but it was still really neat to see her. She currently weighs 11 ounces and is
about 10 inches long- about the size of a banana. Here are some pics..

20 week belly shot.

Look at those muscles!! :)

Cute little fist.

Here's the 3D shot. You can see the side of her face with her arm up by her chin/jaw area. The dang cord was in the way, so her mouth is covered up. Still a pretty neat shot! :)

Zoomed in on her mouth, nose and chin. She's sucking her thumb!! :) SO CUTE!!

Praying arms! :)

Cute little foot..

Poking mommy..

Cute little profile shot.

This week was a big milestone- 20 weeks- half way there! We can't wait to meet our baby girl! :)

Lately..

About a week ago, I felt my baby move for the first time! It was so crazy..i was sitting in the computer lab with my kids, and all of the sudden, I felt it. This little flutter in my tummy. At first I didn't think anything of it, but then it happened again, and again, and then it hit me, she was kicking! It was so neat. Ever since then, I've felt her every day. Matt has even felt her kicking a few times now, and it's so fun. It makes everything more real. It's still crazy to me that in a few months we'll actually have a REAL baby here with us! I've finally gotten to the point where I'm used to being pregnant, but not that I will be a mom! Don't get me wrong, I'm so excited, but it just doesn't seem real. It feels like it's so far away that it'll never happen. We are so excited, and I just wish the time would go by a little bit faster!

I'm almost 18 weeks now, and growing rapidly!!! I have been SO TIRED this past week. By the end of the day, I have no energy at all! Exercising helps, but running is getting harder. It's frustrating not being able to do some of the things I could do before I was prego, but I guess that's just how it goes. Hopefully my energy will come back soon!

Here are some belly pics..six weeks, 12 weeks, and 16 weeks. :)

Baby Girl Maynard!!!!!

Profile shot. You can see her little hand right under her chin.

Cute little thing!!

I think she's sucking her thumb! You can see a full

body shot here.

Cute little hand

Blood Flow

Back view, I love her cute little bum!!

Her brain!

So cute..

It's a girl!

Well, we're having a baby GIRL!!! My due date is April 1st, and I am about 16 weeks today. We are SO excited, she can't get here fast enough. This is the first post I have done while being pregnant, I'm just too busy to keep this thing updated! I'm going to try and be better about it, now that I'm pregnant. I'm going to try to use it as my journal throughout my pregnancy. We'll see how it goes!

We found out we were pregnant July 23rd. I had a feeling I was pregnant, but Matt really didn't think I was. We had only been trying for a month. We both thought it'd take at least 3 months or more, so he figured I wasn't pregnant. I decided to take a test anyway. While we were waiting for the results, I left the bathroom and went into the kitchen for something. Matt stayed anxiously bent over the counter two inches away from the test, waiting to see what would appear. Within one minute he said, "ummm babe?? you might want to come look at this." Sure enough, two little pink lines appeared!! So I did what any other girl would do, I took another test, and another, and another, and well about 3 more after that. It started to become a little game, it was so fun seeing the test result each time!!

I haven't really been sick. Weeks 6 to 8 were a little rough (which also happened to be when we were in Mexico, bad timing!!), but nothing too bad. I don't know how I got so lucky. I'm just crossing my fingers hoping it will stay this way throughout the rest of my pregnancy. I'm still teaching, and I think working everyday and keeping busy is real good for me. I don't have time to think about being sick and it just keeps me going. By the end of the day I am EXHAUSTED!! I'm still exercising every day, which is actually frustrating because the scale is still going up, up, and away every time I get on it. I guess that's normal for being pregnant, but it's still frustrating!!

We have had three ultrasounds now. The first one at 8 weeks at the doctor's office was so cool. We were able to hear her little heartbeat and see a cute little blob. The next ultrasound we did at Fetal Foto's and that was AMAZING. We did it the day after I told my family we were pregnant. That's right, I didn't tell them until I was 15 weeks!! It was so hard to keep it a secret. I told my parents at week 8, but I wanted to wait til my brother Michael (who lives in Chicago) was in town to tell the rest of the family. It was so fun, and I was so glad I waited. My entire family was there, and it was so fun.

She had grown SO much from week 8 to week 15, it was incredible. Everything was formed and she actually looked like a baby! She moved around like crazy the whole time. We saw her puckering her little lips, wiggling her legs and arms arching her back, it was so neat. When the ultrasound tech told us what we were having I just started to cry. Knowing that "it" had a gender made it so much more real to me. I am so excited that she is a girl. I can't wait to dress her up, it'll be so fun! The pink wardrobe has already started to fill her closet. :)

Our 3rd ultrasound was today. Matt works at the school's heath center, and the ultrasound tech he works with needs hours for certification, so she offered to do ultrasounds for us. Of coarse we couldn't pass a chance like that up!! It was so neat, she spent a good 45 minutes with us checking everything and making sure everything was growing and forming how it should. And sure enough, the entire time she was wiggling and moving around. It was amazing to see her little fingers moving and legs kicking. She gave us a CD with all the pictures she took, which was great! Above are some of the pictures she took.

We are SO EXCITED to be parents, and can't wait to meet our little bean!!

Bear Lake

I can't believe it..summer is flying by!! It had been such a relaxing time. Summertime always reminds me why I love teaching so much! :)

Not much has ben going on..matt's got another week of this trimester then he gets a 7 week break, yay! We just booked a trip to playa del carmen, mexico and I am so dang excited to go! I need a beach asap!

Matt's doing really well in school; I'm so proud of him. He's taking such hard classes (pre med) and getting amazing grades. He just got the highest score on his chemistry test out of the whole class! He studies and is such a hard worker. I really admire him for that. There's no way i could do it!

We went to bear lake last weekend for a family reunion, it was so much fun! Here are a few pics..

Hiking!

Finally summer has decided to arrive and I couldn't be more excited. This weekend we spent our time OUTSIDE enjoying the weather It was so much fun! Saturday we went on a little hike up to "R" mountain. It was way fun! I didn't think it'd be that hard of a hike so I went for a long run that morning. Well it turns out the hike was a bit harder than I expected so my legs were super tired. But it was worth it! We got to the top and had a picnic and just relaxed for a bit before heading back down. It was so nice to get out in the fresh air and just enjoy each other.

School is out now, and I am enjoying summer so far. The last day with the kids was really hard. I will miss them so much! I loved my class this year; they were so dang cute and fun. Being a teacher is just great... it's so rewarding and I LOVE that I have my favorite season of the entire year off to do whatever I want. AMAZING! I am keeping busy with Relief Society stuff, which is good because I start to go crazy if I don't have something to keep me busy. Our ward is sending care packages for a ward in Joplin right now. There is a guy in our ward who's from Joplin, and most of his ward's houses have been destroyed. It has been so neat to see how much everyone has gotten involved and how many people just want to help. We have boxes and boxes full of stuff, so I'm pretty excited about it!

Well, I'm off for a bike ride. Hopefully now that it's summer I will have more time to blog. I just can't seem to do it very well during the school year!

:)

Two years..

2 year anniversary...

April 8th, 2009

I can't believe it's been two years! These past two years have been wonderful, by far the happiest of my life. I am so blessed to have married such an amazing man. I don't know what I'd do with out him!

It's been a while blogging wise for me. I don't have the time to do it!!! I have been so dang busy with everything lately, any free time I have I spend it sleeping. I just got called as Relief Society President and it has been a lot of work. It keeps me busy for sure. :) Matt is the best assistant EVER! He has helped me so much already. He's constantly by my side, willing to help with anything I need. THe only reason why I have this calling is because he is so supportive and amazing. I couldn't do it with out him.

Matt is still in school....he's finishing up his pre req's and will be done about this time next year. We have been thinking more about Medical School, and are keeping that in mind along with PA school. Matt will be applying about this time next year, and it is exciting to think about where we will be for the next chapter of our lives.

I am still teaching 1st grade, and loving it. My kids are so dang cute. I can't believe this school year will be over in three weeks. It's crazy!! It has gone by SO fast. I will miss my kids. They have taught me just as much if not more than what I have taught them. It is amazing to see the growth they have made throughout this school year. It is such a rewarding grade to teach because they come in to first grade not being able to read and barely write, and leave reading and writing. It's amazing!! I have been so lucky to have the job I do, in the town I do. I didn't realize how hard it is to get a job around here. It seems like everyone and their dog (@BYU) go in to education, and everyone and their dog wants a job. I got really really lucky.

We had a relaxing Easter Sunday today. I made my first ham!!! It was pretty good! This was the first year (besides our honeymoon) that we haven't been with family on Easter. It was kind of sad. I missed being home with my family. However, it was nice to have our own private little dinner together, with just the two of us. :)

24 years OLD!!!!

I can't believe it, another year has passed and I am now 24. How in the world did I get to be so old? I'm in my mid 20's! AHHHH how did that happen? I still feel like I'm 18...time flies! I had a fun birthday here in the berg with Matt. My birthday was on Friday, and we celebrated all weekend long. It was a blast.

Matt surprised me on Saturday. We went to this resturant we have been wanting to try since we have lived here and some of my good friends were there to celebrate! It was so much fun. I just love these girls, I have made some pretty great friends here!

My cute new boots Matt got me. He did this shopping ALL BY HIMSELF! I didn't even give him a hint at all. He did a great job if I do say so myself. He also got me a nike fit which is awesome, some new running clothes and a couple dresses. :)

There are wayyyy to many candles on this cake!

He made this cake the night before and was up half the night decorating our apartment and in the process of decorating, he fell and accidently crushed the first cake he made, so this was literally an all night project. The cake was SO GOOD! I could have eaten the whole thing by myself.

He surprised me at my school on my birthday and brought my kids cupcakes! They were so excited. They love when he comes to visit. They all want to show off for him and show him all the cool things they can do. They wanted to sing songs for him that we have been learning and it was so cute. We went outside to eat the cupcakes and ended up playing a mean game of tag with the class. It was fun. I love my kids.

On a more depressing note, this is how we have to dress whenever we leave the house. It is SO COLD here. I have never experienced weather like this. This morning it was -30, so school was cancelled (which was awesome, I'm not complaining about that). However, I am really sick of wearing 12 layers, a hat, gloves, face mask, snow shoes, snow pants, and goggles every time we go outside for crying out loud!

COLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Phil didn't see his shadow this morning, which is great.... HOWEVER, I'm sure winter will be here for at least 4 more months. AT LEAST. Locals say that it has snowed on the 4th of July here before. Please pray that that doesn't happen this year! A girl can only take so much. Running outside is a complete joke. They don't plow their sidewalks at all and the whole time I feel like I'm going to fall on my head. I wore those spike things that go over your shoes and that seemed to help a little. The gym was closed here today so I was forced to run outside. HOLY COW. It was miserable. I had about 20 layers on and a scarf that covered my entire face with only my eyes poking out. My face felt like it was going to freeze off. I won't be doing that again any time soon! Well it's off to bed, hopefully school will be canceled again tomorrow. :)