pregnancy + catch up on a bajillion other things

welp, here goes nothin. my insane efforts to catch up on the past 9 months of my life in one measly little blog post because i am...yes, lame-and don't blog often. i would say i need to be better at blogging, but lets face it, i probably won't-but hey, i am a great journal writer-so there. 

so as you all know my last post from eons ago was about how sick i was during pregnancy. seriously though, i was as sick as a badger. see.

so let me give you a quick run-down of how the rest of the pregnancy went. around week 17 i couldn't take it anymore. not being able to function on a daily basis was indeed depressing to my spirit and frustrating because i couldn't keep up with normal tasks. i finally broke down, asked for a blessing from my sweet husband, and said a prayer asking Heavenly Father for some help. After doing all of this and taking my zofran on a very strict schedule; the Lord blessed me and the morning sickness started to ease off. This was wonderful because in my mind if gave my baby a chance to grow some arms and legs, etc. since i'd been so sick i was somehow convinced she wasn't getting any nutrition. i still woke up sick every day, but i was able to get to the zofran and get it down just in time to have a normal day. by the time i was 22 weeks i was a very happy pregnant lady. the baby had started kicking and i could feel her move around, nothing was too painful, and she didn't weigh enough to make my back ache. it was all rather blissful for 8 weeks. it was so nice that i actually started to ENJOY pregnancy. ;)

i figured this was the perfect time to take some pregnancy photos because i wasn't sure how the rest of it would go. here are some of those pretty little pics-lisa tinsley did a great job photographing me...she made me feel pretty when i really didn't feel that way at all.

its really funny because in some of the photos you wouldn't even know i was pregnant, especially when facing forward or wearing a sweatshirt; people had no clue. i don't even think i weighed 98 lbs yet. haha

it was around this time that taco bell memorized danny and his truck because NEVER in my life have i wanted taco bell so badly. i think i made danny buy it for me every night for a month (or it felt like that). i seriously would dream of tacos, or roll over in bed at night and say, "hey babe, about those tacos!?" to which my loving husband would smile, roll his eyes, and get out of bed and say, "how many?" he is such a keeper. (love you babe!) subway was my second favorite and they were also familiar with my face (italian bmt please!) yum! this was also around the time that my started getting tight (gasp!) yes, i was finally gaining weight and things wouldn't zip shut, button, or snap! it was awful :[ i took it one day at a time.

it was a bitter sweet time for danny and i. we were being relocated to a new base soon and had to leave alamogordo, new mexico. it gets me all teary eyed just thinking back. we had to leave all the wonderful families we'd met and the sweet children. we cried the day we left the westover kids because they chased our truck down the driveway with smiles on their faces-so hard. our plan was to take this time to go up to utah and visit family since we didn't have to be to the new base right away. we were being re-assigned to panama city, florida! it was exciting, but i don't think i could really grasp it being pregnant, all i thought about was the longest road trip of my life. 

our original plan was that danny was going to go to florida by himself while i stayed in utah with family, being that i was almost 10 weeks from my delivery date. i wasn't about to drive 13 hours to utah, then 13 hours back to new mexico to get the moving truck and our stuff, and then 4 days to florida..all while being pregnant. looking back the original plan sounds insane, why would you separate from your spouse while pregnant if you didn't have to!? well, i'll tell ya why we thought it was brilliant. danny was in the middle of cross-training (changing jobs within the military) if all went well he would only be at the new base for a month or so and then be re-assigned to a school for training and then another school and yada yada, so who knows when i would have seen him or if i would have been able to go with him. try scheduling dr. visits into your never ending military re-locating life, i dare ya. we really didn't want to change dr.'s a bajillion times-we'd been ridiculously spoiled with dr. hewitt (she rocked). the other plus side was money, you make money when separated and what better time to make the dough before the babes arrival? but i tell ya, once we got up to utah, i started to get really emotional about danny leaving me. i realized, yes i had family around who loved me and were willing to help-but in all reality...who was going to carry me to the breakfast table if i was too sick to get there, and who was going to lift me into the car each time and help me out of it, and who was going to hold me at night so i could cry like i'd just flushed my fish down the toilet for the first time? i mean, danny was a trooper to say the least-and i needed him. so, we prayed about it one night, and immediately after we received the answer that i should go with him. thankfully it didn't hurt our pre-made plans in utah too much. yes, i missed baby showers, and was sad to not be living with our friends scott and ashley, but it was so worth it. we wanted to start this new adventure in our life together. and so we did.

the 13 hour drive back to alamogordo wasn't bad at all, we woke up early and cranked it out because we had to get there in time to pick up our moving truck. the military was only going to reimburse us for our travel from new mexico to florida, otherwise we would have gone from utah to florida. once in new mexico we loaded up the truck and took off! it was hard saying goodbye to our pueblo house, we have missed it ever since. 

the lord blessed me and the drive to florida wasn't bad the first two days. i was comfortable in that moving truck, and all situated on my donut seat. we traveled through texas for what seemed to be never ending (seriously, it took us two friggin days) texas is huge! we saw the city, the never ending flat land, and lots of roadkill and hitchhikers. we went through louisianna and mississippi, which i thought were awesome looking with all their swamps! i searched for gators and kept asking if every log i saw was a crocodile. then we went through alabama and boom! we made it to florida. we checked in at a pet friendly la quinta (bless them for having a pet floor). thankfully all pets on board did wonderful, although there were some moments where my hormones and my cats excessive meowing at every bump made me want to throw her out the window. don't worry, she stopped after about one hour,...but seriously, don't travel with a cat, like...ever. here are some travel photos.

it was literally freezing in utah. even the dogs wore coats cuz they wouldn't stop their shivering.

yes, we are wimps and got used to the warm new mexico weather

everything we own. it was a long haul, and danny did great. he felt so cool driving that truck,  (like a real trucker-he said) except for the not so cool part through tight cities of texas with little roads and lots of traffic. thought we all might have a panic attack!

dogs in hotels, funny-and not ideal for traveling. it was work, but it was a fun family trip! 

they were in awe with the bathroom mirrors

look! gators! j/k

no joke, i wanted to stop and hold one

it started to get crazy green! and the roads had trees on every side of them, like a maze. 

we definitely weren't used to it

and then bam! the ocean pops out of nowhere! it's gorgeous!

awesome people's properties that i creepishly photograph

...aaannnnddd...we love florida. we miss new mexico friends though.

since we had not made plans too far in advance, we were house hunting when we first got here, and had to quickly find a house. our prayers were answered and we were able to find out and get settled. our new church ward is absolutely awesome, and with 2 days of warning they showed up and completely unloaded our truck in one hour! they are the bomb-diggity. we love them already.

 while we adjusted to the first few weeks here it was christmas time, and we had a tragedy hit our lives. our sweet dog major was hit by a motorcycle-ist one night while crossing the road. i can't talk much about it or i'll just cry and re-live it, lol-but trust me when i say it was sad. he was my baby, he was a beautiful, wonderful dog that didn't deserve to leave earth life so soon.

 he was there for me the entire pregnancy, with his head on me lap all of the time when he knew i was sick and crying. he loved us to the fullest, and we worked so hard with him to change his life for the better. when i was a little girl i would always dream of the day i would own my own dog. i never imagined how he would look but how he would be. i knew his personality, and was familiar with his spirit, i just had no idea when we would meet. when i first saw major i didn't even seen his face, i could just feel that he was the one. believe it or not i love this dog as much as my little girl. he was meant to be in my life and now looking back, he left just in time to say hi to our daughter, and to be her guardian angel. major was the pup who announced our pregnancy with (he will forever be a part of this family-even if he is "just" a dog as some might say). christmas was hard, it was hard to put up a tree, hard to be happy and such a change for niche. she is such a smart dog though, she knew major had left and didn't get too depressed about it-she moved forward with us. i remember the night they had gotten out, we had found major's body and still no sign of anicka. i sat on the couch bawling to danny, i said, "i prayed for anicka to come home and be safe, but the lord isn't listening!" right then, we heard some panting at the front door, and danny ran to open it, there she was with a giant smile and drool every where. we grabbed her and hugged her guts out, and i cried like a baby who had been once again proven wrong...he was listening. ;) we love our niche pup!

okay, sorry to be such a downer, back to life! so we love florida, it's green and almost always 60-70 degrees. everyone who lives here says it's the coldest winter it's ever been-haha. 

so here i was nearing the end of my pregnancy in florida, going to church was super hard-it's at 9am and my morning sickness came back and didn't mix so well. zofran saved the day once again! love. that. stuff.