POP...

There goes my belly! 

Oh man, the belly showed up much sooner in this pregnancy then it did with the last (which I hear is how it usually works).  A few weeks ago, just out of my first tri-mester, and bam!  One minute nothing, and the next there was a big bulge in front.  Attractive, right? lol!  A friend who has two kids told me that with her first she gained more weight, but with her second she measured bigger.  So far I haven't gained as much weight as I had with my first pregnancy, but I am definitely showing more.  (But I'm not saying that by the end of this I won't have gained just as much as I did with Tavian!!!...I'm not ready to make such a prediction!)

Anyway, I don't entirely mind the belly bump.  It is a little disconcerting when it is already present and I have to tell people I am only 14 weeks along, but the worst part is that most people just think I have extra fat in my mid section.  It isn't noticeable enough for someone to make the pregnancy connection yet.  I remember this phase last time too, and it is just an akward in between time.  No, I no longer look how I used to.  But also, I don't look different enough yet that people know there is a reason for the bulge!

At least the growing tummy is a reminder to me that yes, there really is a baby inside!  These days it is easy to forget and I could use all the help to remind me.  I even asked Cole the other day if he thought of me as his pregnant wife.  He said no.  Lol!  I'm sure the bigger I get the more he will be reminded as well!

I could post a picture, but I don't want to.  Not feeling "cute" pregnant yet.  Here is to hoping the cute feeling will come at some point!!!

Ordination

This last weekend was packed full with blessings! The Ordination to the Priesthood finally arrived! Our friends Brian, John, Brady, and Gregg were all ordained Catholic Priests. They have all been preparing for at least 7 years for this day, and we were all so excited that it was finally here. I am so very proud of these men and humbled by their willingness to embrace and answer God's call for their life.

The Ordination itself was beautiful, but the Cathedral was PACKED and we ended up having to stand in the back. We were so happy to be a part of their day but we weren't able to see much. Archbishop Chaput gave a beautiful homily and we were glad to have heard it. We left for Denver early Saturday morning and first headed to our friend Shannon's house so we could drop Tavian off. (we knew the ceremony would be long and we knew it would be better for tavian to stay with shannon and get a nap in). Well, the ceremony was long...very long. I had only eaten a small bowl of cereal that morning so we had planned to stop on the way to church, since we knew I would still meet the fast because of the long service. Well, as usual, we were running late and there was no longer time to stop. After standing for about an hour and a half, I was starting to realize that I needed to get some food asap. I was sad to leave early, but I really felt like it was necessary. We grabbed some food from across the street and headed back. Unfortunately the ceremony ended up lasting more then 3 hours so Cole and I had to leave before it was over because we had told Shannon we would be back by then and because we didn't want to be away from Tavian any longer. We are so glad we got to witness such a beautiful moment in history, but it was unfortunate we couldn't stay until the end because I had really wanted to congratulate and say hi to everyone afterwards.

My friend Breanne is close with all of these men as well, so she went to the ceremony as well, and then came back with us to Shannon's house to hang out. We had some short relaxation time, and much needed girl catch up time, before Cole, Tavian, and I headed to the newly ordained Father Brian Larkin's reception. It was such a beautiful reception and the best part was finally getting to see Father Larkin and congratulate and celebrate with him and his loved ones.

Smiling with the newly Ordained Priest, Father Brian Larkin!



It ws special because I got to inform him that he now has a very special Baptism to perform in early December :)  He was very excited for us!!!



We headed back to Shannon's that night, put Tavian to bed, and then Cole, Shannon, her husband Austin, and I played games until midnight. We are so thankful for such wonderful friends in our lives and they always welcome us into their home with such love and we always have such a blast together. Our games usually get pretty competitive and can be very physically active, but it is always filled with tons of fun! It was worth being tired the next day!!! :)
Sunday morning we went to our last engagement, which was Father Larkin performing his First Mass. Watching him, by and with the grace of God, consecrate the Eucharist was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. I was pretty much crying the entire mass through. I wish I could have gotten more pictures/video, because there were so many beautiful moments! I wish we could have gone to the other priests massses, but they were later in the day and evening and we knew we needed to get Tavian home. Shannon ended up watching Tavian for us during the mass as well (she truly is a God send) and it worked out great because we were really able to participate and give our full attention to everything!

Such a beautiful moment!!!

Receiving our first blessing from Father Larkin.  So special!

Breanne got her first blessing from him too!

Love you friend!  So glad we got to experience all of this joy together!!!

Tavian loved all his special time with Shannon...she is such a blessing to us!!!



Thank you for everything Shannon, can't wait to plan another get together soon! :)

So yes, it was a very busy weekend, but who can complain when surrounded by so many blessings??  Thank you Lord for these amazing men and the beaufitul sacrament of Holy Orders!

So excited!

I just heard about the first Northern Colorado Walk for Life!  It is happening Saturday, June 4th at 9am.  I immediately signed up and I am so excited to take part in this event.  It is only a short walk of two miles in Loveland, but the goal is to raise money for Pregnancy Support Centers.  I chose to walk for the Alpha Center in Fort Collins, which has a special place in my heart because I volunteered there in high school.

If any of you would be interested in walking with me, I would LOVE it!  But, even if you aren't able to attend, I would also appreciate any donations.  You can visit  http://www.northerncoloradowalkforlife.com/ for more information, or you can go to that link and click on sponsor, find my name, and then donate!  I would appreciate anything :) 

Hope to see some of you there in the fight for life!!!

"America you are beautiful . . . and blessed . . . . The ultimate test of your greatness is the way you treat every human being, but especially the weakest and most defenseless. If you want equal justice for all and true freedom and lasting peace, then America, defend life." - Pope John Paul II

"Sweeter even than to have had the joy of caring for children of my own has it been to me to help bring about a better state of things for mothers generally, so their unborn little ones could not be willed away from them." - Susan B. Anthony 1889

Jane Eyre

Last night Amy and I had a night out and we went to see Jane Eyre at the Lyric in Fort Collins. 

First of all, it was both of our first time at the Lyric.  It is one of those places you can bring appetizers, or beer, wine of coffee/etc. into the movie with you.  The idea is super neat, but the theatre itself is pretty crammed and not the most comfortable.  I don't know if I would normally choose the venue, even though I enjoyed my latte during the film, but it is all worth it if you get to see a film that you otherwise wouldn't be able to. 

 Jane Eyre is a perfect example!!!  I love the book Jane Eyre and ever since I saw the previews for the new movie I was so excited to see it.  I was nervous though!  Sometimes movies do a horrible job of representing books, and I also wasn't decided on how I felt about the lead actors playing the characters.  I am very pleased to say that Amy and I were both so impressed.  She had never read the book and she still loved it!  I haven't seen a movie in a long time that I new instantly that I had to own it.  I will definitely be buying this movie.  I think they captured the book perfectly, and the characters were perfect and seriously had the most amazing chemistry EVER!  I highly recommend seeing it.  And hopefully you can find somewhere near you that is playing it!  Here is a preview...although I don't even think this does it justice!

Have any of you seen it?  What did you think??

More Updates

I decided I would use one blog to review some of the events that have happened recently...

or not so recently for that matter!

* I think you all know that in early April Cole, Tavian and I went to Virginia to see my sister, Andrea and her family.  It was so wonderful getting to spend time with them and watching the boys play together.  We actually found out we were pregnant the night before we went, which made for a long day of travel becuase I was so anxious to tell her!!  It was the first thing said when I finally saw her!!!!  I only posted two pics from the trip becaue there were so many!  However, I think you will all get a good laugh over the videos I posted.  I'll give you a little info first.  We are a competitive family and when Cole, Luke, Andrea, and I get together we always have competitions.  We play tons of games and sports.  Andrea and Luke have a rope swing and while the kids were napping we came up with the great idea that we should have a competition to see who could swing off the rope and land the farthest away.  I know, very mature! lol!  Anyway, I had a few good rounds, and then the following happened..enjoy!

OMG, I hope you are laughing as hard as we were, and as hard as I still am!  The only downer was that as soon as she was done laughing in my face, Andrea freaked out when she remembered I was pregnant.  Not the best thing to do in early pregnancy, but I wasn't too worried, and thankfully everything was fine!

This next little gem also cracks me up.  Cole won with the longest jump, but he kept trying to beat his record.  We told him to strip down to his native roots, after all he is 1/4 Native American.  So this is was he did....

(oh, and you should know he got his best jump!)

We got to see my cousin Kevin while we were town, who I hadn't seen in years and had never met Cole because he was in the peace corps, so that was really special!

 * We also got to celebrate my besties 25th birthday at The Rio.  I had been looking forward to a delicious margarita, so it was a bit of a bummer that I got pregnant just before this!  I still had a yummy alcohol free mango marg...no comparison to the real thing, but what are you gonna do??



Loving life with my girls!

 

So fun to have a night out together!



*This is random, but for like 5 night straight Cole was sweet enough to go get me Spooners.  It sounded so yummy and it never dissapointed!  Pretty sick I ate this for like a week straight though... 

* Cole got a pic of me all decked out in my scrubs ready to go to my first day of traning.  I was much more energized on the first day then on the last...lol!

* We took some video on Easter morning, but other then that this is all we have in regards to Easter.  It was fun getting to dye eggs with my sister and her family and I wish we had more photos from it.  I'm sure we would have had more pictures from throughout the day if I hadn't been so deathly ill.  Cole and Tavian went to my sisters to celebrate and I just stayed in bed.  Not the best Easter!

* My neice Kenzie had her first communion the weekend after Easter, so we had a lot of family in town.  My brother, Sean, is all the way on the right.  I don't get to see him near enough, and this was actually the first time he got to meet Tavian, so it was really wonderful.  The next few pics are of a night out with just the adults.



This one has my sister Sarah's friend, Denise, in it.  We all love her!

 

Could be one of the best pics ever.  I am pretty excited to get it documented on facebook.  And however it may look, my brother-in-law Christ was not intoxicated.  lol!



Friends!



*LOVE*

 

So cute!



Kenzie receiving her First Holy Communion!  Such a special day!

Even when I don't think I'm going to end up crying, I do!!

Snuggling with one of my brothers daughters, Maddie.  She has gotten so big and I'm so glad she got to meet Tavian!

Tavey loves his Uncle Sean

* And finally I graduated!

At graduation with the class from my training.

Smiling with Gerardo...we had to share a massage room so we became friends.  He is too funny!

*  On our big date night seeing Bebo Norman.  An AMAZING concert!

This is just a taste of one of my favorite songs he sings!

Ok, I think that takes care of quite a bit!!  Sorry it was so long!

Surprise!

As many of you probably already saw on Facebook, I am pregnant!! 



This shirt comes with a bit of a story.  My oldest sister, Sarah, had this shirt made for her son, Connor, to wear when she became pregnant with Mckenzie.  It got passed along with all the other hand me downs and was the perfect size for Tavian to wear.  I didn't use it on Cole because he quietly snuck up on me as I was waiting for the pregnancy test to process (we weren't suprised by this pregnancy..we actually were expecting it!).  But, we did get to use the shirt on most all of our immediate family.  It was really fun to watch as they figured it out.



We are so excited and I had my first real apt today.  I'm already 11 weeks (life was too crazy to see the Dr. any sooner), and I'm so happy to almost be out of my first tri-mester.  If you remember my last post, I was crazy busy getting my massage therapy training done.  Now just add to the list of craziness that I was also pregnant!  If anyone would have told me beforehand that I would have been able to go through all that while pregnant, I would have said it was impossible.  It only makes me all the more thankful that the Lord helped me through it.  I have never, I mean never been so exhausted in my life.  Luckily I didn't feel too sick too often.  There were a few pretty nausuas days, but overall I felt really lucky.  I had jolly ranchers on hand at all times and I was eating something all the time too.  I was nervous at first because, as you know if you read my last post, the first time I was going to try and do the training I couldn't because I was pregnant with Tavian.  Granted I would have been much farther along with him, but I had a few nervous weeks that if anyone in my training found out that I might get kicked out....so I didn't mention it for the first two weeks.  I had talked it over thoroughly with my Dr., who I totally trust, and he said there was no risk whatsoever.  But I was nervous they might not let me for liability reasons.  Thankfully everything went fine and I wasn't at risk for getting kicked out!  Whew!!  It was relief when I no longer had to hide it...and I think my classmates were happy to know I don't always eat that much on a regular basis! haha! 

It is crazy being pregnant again, and a lot of the time I have to remind myself that I am.  Having our apt. today was great because we finally got to hear the heartbeat.  Such a wonderful sound!  It was cute having Tavian there to listen to his little brother/sister's heart.  Still, the second time around seems so much different.  I hardly think about it because I am just so preoccupied with the cutie right in front of me!  I'm sure it will get more and more real as the time passes.  December 7th, our due date, will be here before any of us know it!  I think it is perfect timing.  I think I will love having a Christmas baby, and of courseCole has shared his excitement over the fact that all the expenses will fall in one year :)...lol, that's my hubby for you!  It is hard to believe that Tavian's first Christmas was last Christmas, and this Christmas will be our new baby's first Christmas.  So amazing how quickly things change!  God is good!!! 

We have decided to post pone our big vacay.  I am hoping we will get to take off sometime next August as we are celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary.  We could have still gone this summer, but I really don't want to take any more time away from being with Tavian, and it will be nice to save it for a non pregnant time....if that will ever exist me for..;)  lol! 

As for finally being home with Tavian, oh my goodness we are both loving it!  I have missed him more then I could ever describe, and I can feel him putting trust back into me and has started to realize that I'm not going to be leaving every 5 seconds.  My first day back with him was Monday and we went to Epic to swim and to the park.  Such a fun day!  I wish I could remember all the adorbale things he has been doing lately.  It literally blows my mind how smart he is.  He says new words every day and understands everything we say.  I think pretty soon here I'll dedicate a post to some of the fun specifics!

So I think this catches me up...at least to some degree.  We are very excited to finally make this news public and be able to have all of our friends share in our joy.  Please pray for me and the baby throughout the pregnancy!

M.I.A.

Yes, I realize I have been missing from blog world for a very, very long time.  For those of you who noticed, I'm sorry, but I do have good reason. 
For the last 4 weeks I have been doing my intensive hands on training to become a massage therapist.  Surprised?  Probably, because there is a good chance that I never mentioned anything about this in my blog.  I'll start explaining from the beginning...which was a very long time ago!
It started right before I found out I was pregnant with Tavian.  I heard about a school that was giving free massages from students.  I am always up for a massage, and I definitely couldn't resist the free part.  As the student was giving me the massage, I started asking her about the program.  I learned that it was totally affordable, efficient with time as the book work is all completed at home on your own timeline, and then culminates with a 4 week intensive hands on training.  She left me very interested, as massage has been of interest to me for awhile, so I went home and did some research.  Cole and I were very excited to find a school that was so affordable and that didn't have a year long commitment like most do.  I signed up thinking I would have everything completed within no more then 6 months! 
And then I found out I was pregnant...
At first I thought that would be a good thing.  I could finish the book work and training before Tavian was even born, but the school informed me that I would be too far along by the time I did the training and they wouldn't let me.  Lame.  So everything got put on hold.  I did some of the book work, but for the most part I didn't want to get it all done and then wait months and months for the training and most likely forget everything.  So, after Tavian was born and things slowed down a bit I started back into the book work.  And, despite all the odds and effort and work that had to come together, I actually completed the training.  It was 10-12 hrs. a day, 6 days a week.  I have never been more exhausted in my entire life.  Part of me believed I would never actually make it happen, so I am SO proud that it finally did!
And it really wasn't easy.
Just the thought of being away from Tavian, especially after having never left his side in over a year, would bring tears down my cheeks.  And it took so much love, support, and help from Cole, his mom, my sister, Sarah, my Aunt Barb, and our good family friend, Judy.  All of who helped watch Tavian over the last month.
So I'm pretty sure that counts as reason enough to not have time for blogging...right?  Especially when you add in there that I also had to write a paper, give a presentation, and study for tests throughout.  Oh, and also when you consider the first weekend was Easter (which I ended up being too sick and exhausted to participate), followed by my neices first communion and my brother and his daughter who I never see came to town and stayed with us, followed by Mother's Day (which we didn't celebrate because I was so sick, Tavian had an ear infection, and Cole was on the verge of joining us).  Yeah...no time!

But it is over now!  I officially graduated yesterday morning and Cole was able to celebrate with me.  He took the day off, his mom took Tavian for the day, and we celebrated with lunch, a movie, dinner, and then the Bebo Norman concert in Colorado Springs.  It was an amazing day, but we didn't really think things through in terms of relaxing after such a long stretch of stressful time.  The concert was seriously the best ever, and I am more in love with Bebo then ever, but we didn't leave any time to recooperate.  So that is what I am trying to do now.  Cole and Tavian are downstairs and I am in bed...not finding the energy to drag myself out.  Hopefully the energy will come soon.  If not then I am sure I will awaken with much more strength tomorrow.  And I am looking forward to this week.  Just me and my baby boy.  Finally!  He isn't that thrilled with me these days, as I'm sure is tired to relying on someone who keeps leaving, but Praise God that will no longer be the case!

So, anyone want a massage?  My business is up and running from my house and I would love some clients :)  Let me know!!!

oh, and i'll post some pics soon!