June 4- June 10

Y’all—I am tired! To be honest with you, I really don’t even know how I made it through last week.  My mom and dad left for Mexico, leaving Jason and Lindsie home alone.  I had cookies that I had to make, (and remake because I’m a ding dong and messed them up! Ugh.) hospital visits, work and life like normal too. I think I took a two hour nap on Saturday AND Sunday.  Let me tell you though, it was magical. 

Monday was a regular day.  Almost.  We went and had dinner for my dad’s birthday. (48—holla!) and hung out with them since Kendal would be going to KY for the summer.  I am totally blaming my pregnancy for how much I cried Monday night.  Devin will tell you that it’s just who I am.  But it can’t all be me…right? Pregnancy has to be an explanation too…RIGHT?  I’m going with it.  I bawled allllllllllll night long.  I constantly have these conversations in my head that go something like: “He’ll be ok, right? YES YOU DING DONG.  HE IS FREAKING 18 YEARS OLD.  Yes, I understand that…but he’s really not old enough to be doing this on his own.. HE IS 18. HE IS TECHNICALLY AN ADULT.  So? He’s still my baby brother.  HE IS FINE. HE WILL BE ABLE TO TAKE CARE OF HIMSELF.  But he’s so tender hearted! He’ll get picked on! HE’S NOT GOING TO BE PICKED ON. HE’S OVER 6 FT TALL. HE’LL BE FINE YOU BIG BABY”. ---that’s the literal conversation I had with myself until like 11:30 that night. Poor D just looks at me and says “you’re going to make me and our children miserable, aren’t you?” haha…its not like I’m trying to be overprotective and obnoxious. It’s just who I am!   

Tuesday morning we get a phone call that Dev’s brother, Derik, is in the hospital and is going to have his appendix removed.  Poor kid.  Been there, done that!  Devin didn’t know when he’d be going into surgery, so we left pretty early that morning.  I don’t even think I brushed my hair until I got to work. But hey, at least it got brushed!  We were supposed to be leaving on Friday morning to go to Yellowstone, but with Derik’s surgery, obviously that didn’t happen.  He ended up having his gallbladder AND appendix removed.  His appendix was swollen and he had a ½ inch stone in his gallbladder.  Poor kid has been struggling with his gallbladder for a few years now.  Hopefully he continues to heal quickly!

Wednesday doesn’t seem all that stressful, but it kind of was!  My cute neighbor hired me to make sugar cookies for her sister’s wedding that was that Saturday.  I started on Monday night and I knew it would take me a couple nights to get them frosted/decorated.  Well Tuesday night I was so frazzled that long story short, I messed up like 20 of my cookies! GRR! I was so frustrated! Let me tell you, that was a huge lesson on patience.  Had I just waited for Devin to help me move the table instead of dragging it by myself and making my cookies look like an old wrinkly forehead, I wouldn’t have had to MAKE A WHOLE NEW BATCH OF COOKIES AND REFROST THEM.  To say I was upset at myself was an understatement.  I always tell Devin that EVERYTHING happens for a reason!  When I realized I had ruined my cookies, I was trying so hard to figure out why that happened for a reason. Well, it turns out that not going to Yellowstone made it so I had another day to let my cookies dry completely.  Making it possible for me to have them done in time like I promised!

Thursday again doesn’t seem that bad.  But I was up until 1130 putting the finishing touches on those sugar cookies to make sure they’d be dry in time to take them over on Friday.  Being pregnant and bending over to frost cookies for 4 hours, is a little bit exhausting.  Thankfully I have the best husband in the entire freaking universe that helped me out with house work and yard work AND still managed to do his responsibilities up at Dry Lake and around the barn.  I sure love him.

Friday night I took those cookies over to my neighbor and finally got to relax a little bit.  My family has had Friday night pizza night for as long as I can remember.  Since mom and dad were in Mexico, D didn’t want J and L to go without pizza, so he bought them Papa Murphy’s!  DELICIOUS!  I love their pizza.  At this stage in my pregnancy though, I think I’d love any pizza.. Devin left work a little early to go finish cutting some hay.  Since he left work early, and I didn’t have cookies to do, it was nice to be home at the same time and enjoy time with him.  Also – I mailed Kendal his first package haha!  He didn’t even make it a week… I had some extra cookies so I mailed them to KY for him to enjoy, along with a mini pool game, water balloons, and water balls.  Hopefully he can find some time to hang out at a pool!

On a side note—Devin and Lindsie both felt the baby kick today.  I’ve never seen someone as weirded out as Lindsie was.  It was so cute haha.  Growing up, us older kids always would feel mom’s tummy when she was pregnant, but where Lindsie was the last one, she never really got that opportunity.  The look on her face was priceless!

Saturday Devin did some work down at the barn.  I didn’t get to go grocery shopping on Friday so I went Saturday morning.  NEVER AGAIN.  What a nightmare.  Why is it that every store in the universe thinks that its ok to have FOUR registers open on the busiest day of the week?!  I do not understand it.  I wanted to spend a little bit more time with Jason and Lindsie, so do you know what we did?  We made cookies! Haha.  Obviously making 72 sugar cookies earlier this week wasn’t enough, so I thought we should make some more.  Gratefully, these were just good ol’ fashioned chocolate chip cookies. 

Sunday was a good day.  As mentioned above, I took a nap and it was so delightful.  I think my body finally caught up to me.  I don’t do well on little sleep.. so going to bed at almost 1130 every night and then waking up for work was a little rough on me.  But I made it!  J and L came and had Sunday dinner with us and we enjoyed it.  

 My cute butter dish that mom and dad brought home from Mexico!  Kendal and I :) 

 Kendal and I.  Making chocolate chip cookies

Mothers Day -- Kendal Mission Call

Today has been an eventful day.  Technically its my "first" Mother's Day.  I've never really enjoyed this holiday.  I've always thought that it's pointless.  I shouldn't need a designated day to tell my mom that I love her.  Another reason that I was pretty bitter is because I wasn't a mom yet.  Now that we are expecting our first child, I'm a little bit more excited.. but I still feel like there shouldn't be a designated day.  It should just be a given. 

We enjoyed our day by attending church.  The seniors in our ward gave their graduation talks today.  These kids grow up so gosh dang fast!  I stayed in my ward during Sunday School and then I left to attend sacrament with my family in my home ward.  Kendal was giving a talk on mothers, and where he won't be her for much longer, I wanted to hear him speak.  He did a nice job!  He's such a funny kid.  After I attended church, I hurried home so that we could eat lunch with D's family.  We had hamburgers, frog eyed salad and baked beans.  My mom in law was so sweet and bought me a new decoration that I can hang outside.  It's so gosh darn cute!  After we hung out with them, we headed on down to my families house for dinner.

Kendal turned in his mission papers a few weeks back.  We've been patiently waiting for a couple of weeks for his call to come.  It hasn't been easy!  Poor kid has been so patient. Yesterday he checked the mail and it was finally here!  We had his friends over and my grandma Bonnie and cousin Kobe came down from Idaho.  We did a Facebook live and Instagram live post so that other family members could see it.  He got called to the North Carolina Raleigh Mission! --- SPANISH SPEAKING!!  He was so excited.  He wanted to speak Spanish so bad.  I don't blame him.  He's such a good kid.  

Link to video is here. 

When we got home from being with my family I had a little bit of a crying session.  I blame it on the baby (that's my excuse for a lot of things right now ;) but Dev says its just who I am.  I feel like everything is changing so fast.  I don't feel prepared for everything that is about to happen.  I feel like Kendal, Jason and Lindsie are just growing up so fast and it breaks my heart. I told D that so much is going to change in the next 5 years.  Kendal will leave on his mission, we're going to have a baby, K will come home from his mission, Jason will graduate, J will go on a mission, Lindsie will graduate and there's even a SLIGHT chance that L could be married too!  Sean and Allie will hopefully have a kid and who knows, we may even lose someone in there too.  I feel like my life as been pretty steady and constant.  We do the same thing, every day, no changes.  But then it was like 2018 came and its like my life just took off.  I'm very emotional about it.. (that's the part I'm blaming on pregnancy!) Hopefully I will be able to get my act together and just have faith that everything is going to be okay.  I hope that everyone had a great Mother's Day.  I am so grateful for my mom and for the things that she has done for me.  I feel like I'm quite 'prepared' to be a mom, and I owe it to her. (And all the freaking children she had! Haha ;) I'm grateful for my mom in law and for the role that she played in raising my amazing husband.  I hope that all the women in my life were able to enjoy their day! 

*** I'll get pictures uploaded tomorrow ***

First Trimester!

February 16^th:  Oh my gosh.  I AM PREGNANT!  I have been feeling extremely tired, peeing every half hour, bloated beyond belief and had a gut feeling.  I just didn’t want to trust myself!  When I took the first test—I was still half asleep and I was as blind as a bat.  When I saw the second line come up on the pregnancy test, I literally almost fainted!  I couldn’t believe it.  Because I didn’t have my eyeballs in, I ran into the bedroom and yelled, “Devin! Wake up!”  I ran over to him and I showed him the pregnancy test.  He looks at me and says, “Wait, you’re pregnant?”  I had to go to him to make sure that there really were two lines! I just couldn’t believe myself.  He told me after everything had happened, that he thought he had slept through the alarm.  He saw the 17 as the minutes, and thought it said 7:17 AM.   Since I still doubt myself, I went to Smith’s before work and bought a two pack.  I took both of those when I got to work and they were very positive.  I was just so giddy!!

Devin and I had decided that we were going to tell our parents.  I know that it’s super early, but we wanted them to enjoy this moment with us too.  A couple of months ago, I pinky promised my dad that I would tell him before my mom.  I take my pinky promises very seriously.  I had asked my dad if he was able to talk and he said that he was at lunch.  I sent him a picture of one of my tests and he says, “Yay! Does mom know?” I told him..no.  He said that I probably ought to tell her, or he could do it for me if I’d like.  I knew she was going to kill me for even telling dad before her, so I decided it would probably be best if I told her.  I called her and I told her and she says, “Can we tell dad?”  I had to break the news to her that he already knew.  I thought she was going to reach through the phone and strangle me! Haha.  I didn’t want any of my siblings to know quite yet, but when I was about to tell my mom, I was telling her to not yell, not say anything and she says “are you pregnant?” and Lindsie was standing right there. So now she knows.  Then I decided to tell Allie so that both of them would know. 

Devin and I went grocery shopping after work.  I decided that I would like pizza for dinner and we called his parents to see if they’d like any.  LaDawn told us that they too were planning on picking up pizza so we asked if we could bum off their oven.  Devin wanted to just call his dad grandpa when he walked in the door.  So when Jedd walked in from work, Devin says “Hey, Grandpa!”  Both Jedd and LaDawn kind of looked shocked.  Almost like they didn’t believe us!  Derik walked in and when D called him Uncle Derik he totally thought that he was joking.   He was just like, “oh yeah, very funny!”  

Saturday (17^th) I took another pee test.  Because, why not?  Still positive!  So needless to say, I am a terrible secret keeper.  I ended up telling my brothers that Sunday (18^th) and then my grandma too.  The only reason that I told my grandma, is because she lives with my parents.  I didn’t want her to find out she was the only one that didn’t know about it in the house. 

The thing that I regret the most is: taking a test in the morning, on a Friday.  Work was a drag!! Luckily for me, our office closes at 3:30 PM on Fridays.  

February 19^th:  I made my first appointment!! I was trying to decide between two different OBGYNs—Dr. Anne Blackett or Dr. Kimberly McCulloch.  I tried calling Dr. Blacketts office first, but they were closed for the holiday.  I was kind of in the back of my head wanting to go to Dr. McCulloch, so I was a little bit relieved when I called Dr. McCulloch’s office and they answered.  My very first appointment is scheduled for April 5^th at 4:00 PM!  I put it at the end of the day so that I could just go home afterwards.  

March 8^th: I’ve been feeling pretty decent the last couple of days.  Considering that I have been nauseous.  I hit 6 weeks.  At this point I don’t know if I am really 6 weeks or if I am a week or two behind.  I just know that it’s been 6 weeks since the first day of my last period.  I’ve tried to get myself to work out, but I am just so gosh dangit tired.  I’m grateful that the time change is Sunday and that it’s getting warmer.  I can stand to put on thermals/sweats and go on a walk with Aggie.  So that’s been helping.  Yesterday I wasn’t hungry at all.  I drank my shake and ate a hardboiled egg for breakfast, salad for lunch, and I drank some chicken broth for dinner.  Sometimes the thought of food just makes me nauseous.  

Today I bought Peanut’s first books!! I was out shopping with Ashlee (coworker) for my other coworker, Amanda’s, baby shower.  I saw these two books and they were $5.00 each at Kohl’s.  The books that I bought are Sleep Tight, Sleepy Bears and Goodnight Little One.  Both of these books are written by Margaret Wise Brown.  I am so excited!  Devin and I really don’t want our kids to have to be entertained by technology from the time that they exit the womb, so I really want to collect books for them.  I am a firm believer that “old school” isn’t always bad.  

March 12^th:  I feel so sick.  This weekend has not been kind to me.  Today makes 7 weeks—peanut is the size of a raspberry.  I have been pretty nauseous off and on, and now I feel like I have the flu.  I’m pretty sure I have a fever.  I knew coming in that being pregnant would be hard, but having the flu/fever on top of it, just isn’t working.  Peppermint oil is still saving my life at this point in time.  I just stick a little bit on the tip of my nose and voila! I can’t eat much of anything.  Especially broccoli!  I’m like seriously dry heaving right now even just thinking about it.  Almost 3 weeks until my first appointment!  I talked with my mom, its normal to feel like I feel.  I feel like if I say anything out loud, I’ll jinx myself.  I know God doesn’t work that way.  I’m afraid of there being no heartbeat.  That’s my biggest fear.  I just so badly want this baby to be healthy.  I’ve been saying many, many silent prayers.  I’m grateful for the peace that they bring to me.

March 14^th:  I have been cramping the last few days and it’s caused me to worry.  I don’t feel like I should be cramping enough that it wakes me up in the middle of the night.  I’ve been trying all freaking morning to get in with my doctor.  Finally they were able to get me in at 2:30.  When we got there, I had to give the front desk some information and then they took me back to have my first ultrasound!! The tech that I worked with was so sweet! She was just the nicest thing in the world.  First thing that she found was the baby!  Oh my gosh my heart just melted right there.  You could see the little heart beat fluttering on the screen and it was just so surreal!  Devin had the biggest smile on his face!  Little peanut’s heart rate was 157. Gratefully, we only saw one too.  That was a huge relief.  She said that I am measuring right on schedule at 7 weeks and that everything looked good so far!  She did find a cyst on my ovary that ovulated.  She said it should disappear but that it can definitely cause pain and be uncomfortable.  She printed us off a picture of our cute little peanut and it was such a relief to know everything is ok!  My next appointment is still scheduled for April 5^th. 

March 16^th: Today Devin’s cousin, Kira, got married.  We drove down to the Payson Temple and it was a beautiful day!  I bought these things called “sea bands” and they’re an acupuncture type of band that you wear and it sits on a pressure point.  Let me tell you something!  That thing works.  I almost threw up in the sealing room of the temple.  Do you know how bad that would have been?!  I just kind of pushed the little knob deeper in the pressure point and BAM! Took the nausea away instantly.  It was beautiful.  

March 18^th:  We told the rest of our grandparents today!  The only people we had left to tell was Grandma Shirley and grandma and grandpa Jackson.  We went over to Grandma Shirley’s and showed her a picture.  Her reaction was so cute!  She had to sit down.  She was so excited.  I called my grandma when we got down to my parent’s house and asked her what she was doing around Halloween.  She was so confused. Lol! I told her she needed to make sure her schedule was free around then so that she could come and hold our baby!  Devin says her response was his favorite.  “Holy awesome!” haha!  Next I called grandpa (he’s in Boise working right now) and he was excited too! It’s nice to know that our grandparents know.  We’ll probably tell the rest of our family after the appointment in April.   

March 25^th:  Happy Birthday, Devin!  Yesterday we went down to Ogden to see if we could find anything at Babies R Us.  Since they’re closing all their stores, they were having a big liquidation sale.  When we got there, there was like nothing.  It was kind of a waste of a trip. We were able to salvage the trip by buying a couple of gifts for Devin’s birthday today.  We ate at El Paisa grill in Ogden.  OMG. My pregnant butt was in heaven!! That was the first time I have eaten street tacos that taste like I am back at my favorite little spot in Juraquilla.  It was a nice day to spend with Devin, just the two of us.  I felt so bad.  His birthday is today and I have felt like garbage.  I dry heave all day long.  I’m achy, nauseous, I just feel like garbage.  I feel awful.  I wrote in Dev’s card like literally while I was lying in bed.  I put it on his pillow while he was brushing his teeth!  I hope that I can feel a little bit better, and be able to make it up to him.  

March 26^th:  I have not felt good all freaking day.  I am miserable!! I had lunch bunch today at work, so I brought tostadas for about 8 or 9 of us to eat for lunch.  While I was cooking, I wasn’t feeling that fantastic, but I figured it was just pregnancy symptoms.  (I made sure that I didn’t have a fever or anything while cooking.) I think I’ve thrown up 4 times.  After I ate, I felt pretty good.  Until about 2:45.  I was so cold!! Ashlee felt my forehead and said I was hot, so I assumed I had a fever.  My whole body just ached.  I decided to leave at 3:00 and go home and try and sleep.  I took some Tylenol and took a nap.   I took the rest of the food I cooked over to my parents and we had tostadas for dinner.  I’m feeling much better, just glad to know I’m not so sick from being pregnant.  

March 30^th:  Ok, the funniest thing just happened.  I was talking to Ysabel’s daughters Janelle and Nohelly in Spanish.  I asked Ysabel if they knew if I was pregnant and she said no.  I told them that I have a baby in my tummy and that I’m pregnant.  Nohelly looks me dead in the eye and says “Why aren’t you fat?!” hahaha I needed that laugh today.  It was so cute and so funny and to be honest with you I’m just glad that she didn’t call me fat.  I explained to her that the baby was really small and that as the baby grows, my tummy will grow with it.  She looks at me again and is like “Uh huh.  You’re supposed to be fat.”  I couldn’t help but laugh!  It was so funny!  From the mouth of babes! 

March 31^st: I wrote another blog post about things that happened this weekend – since it was General Conference/Easter, I wanted to have its own separate blog.  You can find it here.  I am attaching the link here, because I think it will cut this little story short. Haha.  As mentioned in the other blog post, Devin and I worked really hard in the yard today.  When Devin was at priesthood session, I went and spent some time down at my parent’s house.  While I was down there, I got super nauseous.  Like…really bad.  My left leg was kind of tingly, and my left kidney felt like someone was stabbing it with a knife.  Since this happened towards the end of the meeting, I just took some cranberry pills from my mom and then went and met Devin.  His family tradition is to go to Wendy’s and get food/frosty’s.  This time, since it was the final four for college basketball, they bought Fredrico’s Pizza.  I couldn’t even eat it, which is so sad because it’s my absolute favorite.  I went and I threw up in their bathroom and then I sat in there and cried.  I was in so much pain.  Devin wanted to take me to the ER right then and there, but I convinced him to wait a little bit.  I took a lot of ibuprofen in high school because of my knees, so I know that my kidneys aren’t the best kidneys in the world.  I figured it would pass, and I’d be just fine.  I stretched out on the couch and fell asleep.  When I woke up, the pain was gone.  I was still nauseous though.  Devin took me home and I brushed my teeth and I tried to go back to bed.  The sharp, stabbing pain came back.  I drank some lemon water (I think I’ve posted the recipe before) and I rubbed some lemon oil on my left side and said a prayer! I was able to fall asleep and convince Devin that if the pain was back in the morning, I wouldn’t fight him.  I’d let him take me to Instacare. (Lot’s cheaper than ER!)  I haven’t had any pain since!!

My sickness is still there, but it’s not really morning sickness.  I call it bedtime sickness.  Every time I lay in bed at night, I get nauseous and could throw up.  I try to fall asleep as fast as possible so it will pass.  Usually that helps.  

April 5^th:  TODAY IS BABY APPOINTMENT DAY!!! I am literally COUNTING DOWN the minutes until I leave to go get D.  22 minutes from this exact moment.  I am just filled with so many different emotions.  I’m sweating from excitement.  I’m nervous as heck.  I just worry so much about if the baby is ok, and if it’s developing how it should be.  It just stresses me the heck out.  I’m getting more and more nervous though as time approaches.  I pray and pray and pray that everything will be ok! Well, I’ve got a couple of minutes before I got to go get Devin, so hopefully the next post is POSITIVE!  

Just got back from my appointment!! OMG.  Little peanut is so cute! We met with Dr. McCulloch and I think she’s nice.  She talked to us for probably 10 minutes and then we went and did an ultrasound!  We heard the heart beat!  It was such an exciting moment to hear the little heart thumping instead of just seeing it on the screen.  I started to cry!  I asked her if she gets people in there who cry a lot, she said yes, but she likes happy tears!  It was beating at 185 bpm.  I can’t believe how much it has changed in the last 3 weeks!  I will be seen every 4 weeks until week 30, then I’ll go every 2 weeks until week 36, to which I will go weekly until baby is born!! This is getting so real! I think it will become a lot more real once I can feel the baby kicking.  I think our baby looks like a monkey right now.  It’s so neat though that you can now see arm and leg buds.  Right now our due date is for October 29-31.  (29^th due to my period, and 31^st by size of baby.)  My next appointment is on May 3^rd at 2:45.  I did get my blood tests back already, they were posted very quickly on the health website that they use.  From what I can tell, everything looks good!! 

April 9^th:  This past weekend was rough.  Physically and emotionally. Friday night, Devin and I were just sitting around, watching TV.  I got up to go to the bathroom, and when I was wiping, there was a lot of blood.  You can only imagine the panic that swept through my body.  Devin was so calm (as usual) during this little nightmare I had.  It wasn’t a ton of bleeding, but it was more than just “spotting”.  I texted a really good friend of mine, (who also happens to be pregnant!) and she called and talked to me for a little bit and helped calm me down.  It’s nice to be able to have someone to talk to, who is going through the same thing that you are.  I called the on call doctor, who asked me some questions and we both determined it wasn’t bad enough that I needed to go to the ER right away.  If I started to bleed again, he did want me to go in.  Jedd came over and helped Devin give me a special blessing since my dad was in Provo for a volleyball tournament.  What a blessing it is to be able to receive those! 

Saturday I just kind of relaxed.  I tried not to do too much and just kind of laid low.  I called the office and scheduled another ultrasound for Monday, per the on call doctor.  Sunday was just a relaxing day and again, kept it low key.

Today Devin and I went in for another ultrasound.  The ultrasound tech was so nice!! He made sure that little peanut was looking good and everything with me was ok too.  He said that he thinks it was the cyst that I had that popped and caused me to bleed a little bit.  We saw the heartbeat again, which was such a huge relief!  172 BPM.  He gave us some of those cool 3D ultrasounds, and peanut definitely looks like an alien. Haha!  After looking at the ultrasound, I think we’re having a boy!  Devin still thinks a girl – but I think he’s saying that just so he doesn’t get his hopes high.  I feel much better knowing that baby is ok.  I know that it’s probably going to cost me peanuts kidney to pay for all of this…but we’re trying! ;)

April 19^th:  Not a whole lot has been going on lately.  I’ve been feeling a little bit better.  Some days are still better than others, but I’ve been pretty good so far!  Tomorrow my mom and I are going to go to Woods Cross and buy our first piece of furniture for the nursery!! I found a really good rocker/glider on KSL for $80.00.  What a steal!  The person on KSL said that it regularly retails for $300.00.  They’re being very kind and holding it for me until tomorrow.   I keep telling myself to just “wait until your next appointment, make sure everything’s ok..” but I’m starting to realize that I need to just enjoy this moment.  So I’m going to start buying things for the nursery.  Whatever happens with the baby, happens.  

May 4^th:  Happy Star Wars Day!! I went to my appointment yesterday and everything looked great!  We didn’t get to see baby, but we heard its little heart beat thumping away.  171 BPM.  Doctor said that everything with me looked good.  My blood pressure and my weight all looked good. I am officially in the second trimester and I am definitely starting to feel alive again! Haha.  I have to be honest, I really wasn’t that sick in the first trimester.  I was just exhausted.  I really only got nauseous towards the end of it when I would take my prenatal vitamin.  But other than a few sick days here and there, I’ve been really blessed!  I had the wonderful opportunity of having a Pap smear done.  That was a party.  My next appointment is in 4 weeks, and then I’ll go in 2 weeks after that for my anatomy scan.    In my opinion, I think they should just do my anatomy scan at my 18 week mark.  I feel like the second appointment is unnecessary and just another way to get more money.  But oh well, I just do as I’m told.  

I’ve announced it to the world now so no need to make the blog posts longer than they need to be.  I’m so grateful for the place that D and I are in and hope that everyone enjoys Cinco de Mayo tomorrow… and May the 4^th be with you! ;) 

General Conference/Easter -- 2018

Our Easter weekend started out on Friday.  Jason turned the big 15!  Devin got the day off to go snowmobiling with his great Uncle Larry and Cousins Greg and Laura.  That man could snowmobile almost every day if I would let him.  Fridays are my grocery shopping days.  After I got home from grocery shopping, and Devin got home from snowmobiling, we headed down to my parents for some pizza and cake!  I can’t believe that Jason is already 15.  When we were growing up, my mom, dad, Allie and I would call Kendal, Jason and Lindsie the ‘three littles’.  I still call them that, even though they are now 17, 15 and 13.  I’m sure that they will be the ‘three littles’ until the day I die – and then probably still in heaven.  Haha!  The three littles are in the stage now where they all like getting money for their birthdays.  That makes it super easy for Devin and I! They spent the night playing basketball and then D and I went home and had a nice little walk by ourselves.  (Aggie went to my parents to play with Myla, so we decided that we could go on a walk by ourselves for once.)

Saturday morning we slept in a little bit.  I always feel so much better when I wake up naturally on my own.  Even if it’s like 20 minutes longer than what my alarm is normally set for.  We kind of just laid in bed for a little bit.  It was so relaxing!  On Thursday, we had started to trim our raspberries.  With the warmer weather, I was afraid that my berries were going to start to budding before I got them trimmed.  We went out and finished cleaning up our garden and trimming raspberries before the next rain storm and just so we're ready when it’s time to plant!  After we got our garden all cleaned up, we decided that it was probably time for lunch.  Today is the first day of the year that we whipped the grill out!! We made bacon burgers with steamed carrots (that we kept all winter in the garden) and zucchini.  Once we finished our delicious lunch, we raked the entire back yard.  Now—I understand that there are people out there with bigger yards than me, but I was already so tired and exhausted that it was painful for me to rake the backyard.  Thankfully, Devin was there and he did most the work. ;) After we finished in the yard, we spent the rest of the evening hanging out, Devin went to priesthood session, and then we watched the final four.  (We did listen to General Conference while we were outside, and we went in to watch the Solemn Assembly for President Nelson and we were able to sustain him.  What a beautiful moment that was to watch and witness.  President Monson was put in 10 years ago, so I didn’t really remember what happened.  I hope that I will be able to remember that for a long, long time. 

With Sunday being Easter, Devin and I laid in bed and watched the first session of the Sunday General Conference at home.  It was so nice and relaxing.  It was good for me at least too, since I really couldn’t move.  I was so sore! We went and ate lunch with D’s family.  It was such a nice day!  

In 2010, Devin got called to serve in the Nicaragua Managua South mission.  He served from July 2010-July 2012.  He loves the country, the food, everything about Nicaragua.  When he was serving down there, President Nelson (then a member of the 12 apostles) came to visit and told the people that they would not get a temple until they started to pay their tithing.  Every general conference since I have known Devin, he is always hoping and praying that a temple will be built there.  As we listened to President Nelson announce temples in the last session on Sunday, we were both just praying and hoping that Nicaragua would be a part of that announcement.  When President Nelson read Managua, Nicaragua, I looked at Devin and his face was filled with pure joy.  We yelled and we cried.  I have not seen my husband cry in a long, long, long time.  But these were tears of accomplishment and of joy and of gratitude.  Those people that he loves so dearly, in a short time, will no longer have to leave the country in order to visit the Lord’s house.  The spirit was strong in my little home.  You could feel of the love that God has for ALL his people.  It was such a tender moment for us to enjoy together.  I will never forget that feeling that was in our home.  I know that Christ lives.  I know that he loves each and every one of us.  I know that prayers are answered.  Not in our time, but in God’s time.  They will be answered.   I love general conference.  I love the opportunity that we get to hear from each of the beloved members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, as well as those in the First Presidency and members of other quorums.   One of my favorite quotes from this conference was by our dear prophet, President Russell M. Nelson, “We can pray to our Heavenly Father and receive guidance and direction, be warned about dangers and distractions, and be enabled to accomplish things we simply could not do on our own.” 

We finished our Easter day by having dinner with my parents.  I got the cutest cow shirt from my mom.  I told her that if I didn't get a basket, I was calling child services. Haha!  So she bought me this shirt instead.  We laughed, played volleyball, and enjoyed each other’s company.  What a beautiful blessing it was to celebrate Easter, and listen to those who have been called by God.  I am so grateful for the blessings that were given to my family this weekend, and well as the beautiful sunshine!! I hope and pray that everyone had a Happy Easter.

Meat Day

I am 98% sure that I almost killed my husband, and myself off today.  In our house, we have whats called: Meat day.  I'm not the biggest fan of meat day, and usually Devin is the one that is pushing me to participate in this horrible day.  Meat day is what it says.  A day full of meat.  Obviously, it doesn't take us ALL day to do our thing, but it's long enough.  All meat day is, is we brown a bunch of hamburger (usually 6-8 lbs) to freeze and have for later. Now I know what you're thinking.  6-8 lbs? That can't be to bad.  But have you done it? Have you REALLY done it?  It's not the most fun-filled activity, and its just something that I personally despise. What we usually do is brown and season the hamburger, Devin will then hand squeeze the grease out, bag it into some quart sized bags, and freeze it.  It takes us at least an hour, depending on how many pounds we do, and it makes life SO much easier on the days that we're short on time!  We've done this for sausage too.  

Today was worse that normal.  I found a deal at Macey's for chicken.  I've done the Zaycon chicken, and sorry you Zaycon lovers, but it just wasn't my favorite.  I loved it at first!  It was a lot of chicken for a good deal.  Well the deal today, was even better!  I got 40 lbs of boneless, skinless chicken breasts for $61.39!  When I bought my chicken through Zaycon, it was close to $75.00.  I had to order it online, and wait to pick it up.  I picked my chicken up from Macey's and brought it home today. (Now we have not ate any of this chicken yet, so I'm not necessarily saying that it's better than Zaycon.  As soon as I try it, I'll let you know which is better!)

What I've done in the past is bought whatever bulk meat, and stored it in grandma and grandpa Jeppesen's extra fridge.  Well I took my 40 lbs box down there today after work, only to find the fridge had been unplugged.  DANG.  In their defense, they had no idea that I was bringing chicken today.  There was no way that the chicken was going to fit in my fridge.  The original plan was to put it in the fridge and grandmas, and then deal with it tomorrow or even Monday. Devin walked in right when I was attempting to put it in the fridge and since he is a go getter, he decided that it would just be best to get the chicken prepped today.  We spent the next 2 hours trimming the fat off the chicken, creating fillets and tenders from some of the pieces, (we've never done fillets before) and then vacuum sealing it with grandma's Food Saver. (We haven't talked to grandma or grandpa, and its likely that grandma will see this sometime tonight.  So if this is how you find out grandma, surprise! haha) 

After those 2+ hours of chicken prepping, I browned 3 lbs of hamburger.  Between all the prep work and the cleaning up, by the time we sat down to eat dinner, it was literally 9:00 PM.  OH MAN.  We're going to sleep SO good tonight!  I'm really thankful that Devin supports me in these weird little things that I like to do.  I enjoy getting the chicken because if all we ate was the steer, it would probably drive me nuts.  I have always felt strongly about having some of these kinds of foods stored up, just in case anything happened.  As much as I don't enjoy meat days, I honestly would highly recommend it.  As Devin and I are trying to expand our family, I feel that its important for us to take a few days out of the year, to do this small prep.  It has really been a lifesaver!  Especially in the summer when we're at work all day, and then go straight to the farm.  

 Chicken before and after

 Browning the hamburger and squeezing the grease out.  (Saving our hearts! <3)

Grease and bagging

Good food!

This week I wanted to post about what Devin and I had for dinner, last week.  I felt like we ate pretty decent and thought, why not!  Last week, a couple of our meals were: Gallo pinto, pork chops, steak and sausage/potato soup.

Devin and I eat a lot better during the summer months.   I’m not saying that we eat terrible in the winter either.  I just think that in the summertime, you get a lot more fresh foods that I feel like are easier to work with.  I feel like in the winter, our side dishes for every meal are either some kind of a potato…or rice.

In the summer, we eat a lot of “summertime” salads.  Apple salad, broccoli salad, pink salad, green salad etc.  We eat A LOT of vegetables too.  Whether we grow them in our own garden, or get them at the grocery store – I just feel like the months of May-September is easier for me to cook dinner.

I’ve been trying so hard to eat healthy.  But unfortunately for me, I am a carb lover.  I love all things carbs! Bread, potatoes, chips, crackers…all things bad for you.  I’m trying my best to eat healthier.  I know that carbs aren’t very good for you, because they turn into sugars.  But I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with eating potatoes or rice every now and then.  With that being said, any of your favorite side dishes, would be appreciated!

Gallo Pinto:  Devin served his two year mission in Nicaragua.  One of his absolute favorite meals from there is gallo pinto.  Translation: Rice and beans.  We’ve made this a couple of times, and each time we make it we get a little bit closer to having the authentic, Nicaraguan taste that he dreams about.  He tells me about when they would fry up the rice and beans, scramble an egg sunny side up, and then slice an avocado with it.  I love seeing his face when he describes things like that from his mission, so I always try my best to replicate it to my best ability.  Ever since coming home from his mission, he can’t eat some fresh fruits.  A lot of fresh fruits upset his stomach.  Fruits like raspberries, fresh peaches and avocados really hurt his stomach. (Yes!  Avocado is a fruit!)  So for dinner last week, we settled with just gallo pinto and a fried egg.

Pork Chops:  There are a couple of different ways that I usually make pork chops.  I will either pan fry them, or bake/crockpot them in apple juice.  Apple goes SO good with pork in my opinion.  This week I decided I’d fry them up.  I put one of the McCormick seasonings as a rub on the outside of them.  Smoky Applewood Marinade is what I used as my rub.  I rubbed them lightly with the powder, and pan fried them on the stove!  They were pretty good!  Not my absolute favorite, I’d definitely pan fry them again, but maybe not with that specific rub.  I’ve been on a green bean kick lately too.  They seem like “wintery” food to me.  We ate the pork chops with mashed potatoes and green beans.

Steak: As I mentioned above, most of our side dishes lately have been mashed potatoes or rice.  Lucky D got to eat mashed potatoes AND green beans, twice last week.  Poor guy!  The only difference between these two meals, was literally the meats.  Since Devin’s dad has the cows, he butchers a steer every year.  He has been very gracious in sharing the meat with us.  That being said, we get steaks!  We decided to grill some tenderloins that we had from the last steer we killed.  Since it's a little bit too cold to be outside grilling, we decided to pan fry these tenderloins in butter and with some rosemary sprigs.  Oh my delicious.  Devin has become the steak pro!  I am not even kidding.  When ever I’d go out to a fancier restaurant and get steak, I was just in heaven.  Restaurant steaks now, just do not even compare!  There is only one other place that can cook steaks decently close to Devin’s.  Devin’s are better, but Texas Roadhouse’s are pretty close.

Sausage potato soup: We decided to try and make a new soup.  As posted before, Devin and I are very much soup people.  Devin found this one soup on Taste of Home’s website.  It is a sausage potato soup.  It has sausage, potatoes, carrots, and celery in it.  It was different than any other kind of soup I’ve made.  There was no roux to be made. (That means no flour!)  You can find the link to that recipe, here.

I have told D multiple times, that if I could be anything in the world, I would be chef.  I love food!  I watch all the food network shows. (Beat Bobby Flay, Guys Grocery Games, Chopped, Worst Cooks in America, you name it, I’ve probably seen it)  Now I’m not the best cook in the world, but I’m definitely not the worst! I’m grateful for Devin and his patience when I see some fancy recipe on food network, or the internet, and want to try and do something similar.  I know this isn’t the best written blog and maybe the food isn’t that impressive, but it is definitely a work in process and I look forward to trying to cook a little bit better every day.