baby journal: week 6

Journal from Monday, March 31st ● Posted 5.27.14

Taking bump pics in these early stages is pretty hilarious.  First of all, we always seem to take them right after I've eaten dinner so...yes, that is fully and totally a food baby.  And secondly (since we haven't told anybody yet) I always feel like we're sneaking around trying to get a clandestine shot of my nonexistent tummy.  It's pretty funny.  Quick, Dave!  Is anybody watching?  Let's grab a shot really fast.  Alright, act natural.  Haha, it will be kind of nice to have everybody know our big news just so we don't have to run around like that anymore.  Ok, mostly it's just me.

I stayed the better part of last week with my parents while Dave was away on business and I gotta tell you, they spoiled me rotten.  Shopping and whatever I wanted to eat, bringing me water, and crackers, and anything I needed.  Imagine what it will be like when I'm 8 months along ;)  Anyways, it was lovely and, by some lovely miracle, my nausea decided to take a hike.  And the more I ate?  The better I felt.  Weird.  I know.

Of course, that good spell couldn't last.  I picked up David Saturday night and fought off the queasiness on Sunday.  And don't even get me started on this morning.  I got Dave out the door for work and climbed right back into bed.  Not one of my finer moments.  Ah well.

One of the funner points of this past week is that we finally got to tell David's parents that they're going to be grandparents again!  We've been trying to get a hold of them since last Sunday (when we told my parents), but what with them being busy missionary bees we haven't been able to.  Even last night was a challenge with Norm doing paperwork for the mission and Cindy being on the phone, David had to rally them both to the computer screen (we Skyped) with the lie that we just needed to ask them one little questions and then they could get back to what they were doing.   David's younger brother happened to be there too, but we swore them all to secrecy until we decide to tell the rest of the family...which will be?  Easter-ish?  We'll see.

We also have my first appointment with the OB this week!  I'm crazy amounts of excited to hear the baby's heartbeat and know that all is well.  After that I don't know how I'm going to keep my mouth shut!  Good thing I have two excited grandmas to gush to when I feel the urge ;)

With baby the size of a sweet pea my main symptoms are:

• constant mild nausea - which I combat with all sorts of peppermint remedies, saltines, and tons of water - so far so good(ish)
• tired, oh so, oh so, oh so tired.  Going to bed early is my best friend
• oh yeah, and the skin of a pre-teen.  Pretty sure this last one is just a cruel joke from nature - fingers crossed it works itself out ASAP

best. day. ever.

Tuesday, March 25th, 2014
It was a pretty darn stinkin' fabulous day.

First of all it started off feeling like a Saturday.  No complaints here.  A pho-Saturday morning and then a text updating the family that my siser-in-law was in labor and the first Tobler grand-baby would be born in the next 24-ish hours??  Pretty fantastic.

Then Dave stayed and worked from home until I dropped him off at the airport in the afternoon to catch a flight to Dallas for business and I headed down to Orange County to spend the rest of the week with my parents.

When I got home my mom and I putzed around, ate Golden Spoon, and got a few things done until (at 5:39 PM California time) Brooke ran down the stairs with her computer bubbling about how she got an email from BYU Admissions and how she only got past Congratulations.  This cute girl has worked so hard to get into her #1 college of choice and it finally paid off.  We danced and cried and couldn't have been happier.  And then promptly signed her up for fall classes ASAP.

Then, a few hours later, we got the most wonderful text saying that the cutest (and first!) Tobler grandbaby had been born!!!!

Hazel Michelle Tobler

6 pounds, 13 ounces, perfectly perfect, and born at 8:38 PM Ohio time.  That was ONE MINUTE before Brooke got her acceptance email.  Just saying, that was a pretty good two minutes in the Tobler household.

We were all pretty giddy from AM to PM and I'm pretty sure today won't be able to top that.

And PS can it be April 21st already so I can fly to Ohio and snuggle that cutest of cute baby??  I'm dying over here!!

baby journal: week 5

Journal from Monday, March 24th ● Posted 5.27.14

You know, it's kind of the hardest thing in the world to have people ask me "hey, what's been going on with you lately?" and all I can say is, "oh, you know, same old, same old."  When what I really want to do is jump up and down with glee and yell:

"WE'RE HAVING A BABY!!! LIFE IS CRAZY AND BUSY AND WONDERFUL!!"  

But, you know, I resist.

As of 5 weeks I got my annual spring cold, which normally isn't too much of an issue...when I can take NyQuil.  This time around it was a roller coaster full of humidifiers, peppermint tea, throat lozenges, hot showers, and Tums (the only medicine I know I can take).  Dear immune system, please bulk up - this not taking meds when you're sick situation is kind of no fun.  Rephrase.  Not fun.

On top of my sniffles my tummy has prematurely decided to get picky.  Dave and I laughed that this little peanut inside me is not big enough to be making these kinds of issues, but, at the size of an apple seed, she's doing just that.  I don't ever seem to be very hungry, but when I do eat it is in the tiniest of portions.  That is assuming that I've discovered something to eat that actually sounds good.  Right now my favorite options are saltines, pizza, and Cafe Rio sweet pork tostadas.  Salty.  I guess this baby likes it salty.

Another fun 5 week update is that we told my parents we were expecting!!!  Finally!  Someone else can share in the excitement.  We drove down to their house on Sunday afternoon to join them for diner with an elaborate plan and cute little sign to put on my mom's dessert, but about 10 minutes before we got there, David turned to me and said he didn't want to wait the whole afternoon to tell them.  So we revised and got spontaneous.  We ended up announcing our news while chatting around the kitchen table, and my Mom's face in the video David captured it pretty fantastic.  Excited.  So excited.  It was great to tell them sooner so we had the whole afternoon to celebrate, toast with bubbly blood orange Pellegrino, look at baby books, and talk about my silly symptoms.  And then we pretended we went through with our original plan, because I still thought my little sign was pretty dang cute, and I have a nice family who will play along ;)

winter reads

“A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children's story in the slightest.” 
-C.S. Lewis

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 

The Lightning Thief - Rick Riordan

My little sister had the full set of these books, my 15-year-old young women loved them, and I was in a little bit of a reading ditch so...there you go.  And it was cute.  Cute enough to read another one?  Maybe, maybe not.  Mostly I liked all the Greek mythology.  Definitely a kid's book, but a pretty good one.

Insurgent - Veronica Roth

One of the perks of babysitting is finding the next book in your series on their bookshelf.  Awesome!  I just have to finish it in a week = speed reading.  These Divergent books are a quick read and move fast, so it's easy to eat them up, and this one did not disappoint.  And that ending left me with a real cliff hanger - now I definitely need to go get #3!  Too bad their mom took it on vacation with her...

 Inferno - Dan Brown

I think I'll always be a Dan Brown fan.  David and I laughed about this, but I just seem to walk away from his books feeling smarter!  About art or history or science - and that is a fun thing.  This particular novel of his has a fun twist right from the beginning that gives it a very different feel than some of his other work (or so I think), and it's pretty intense right from the get go.  It's got all the classic Dan Brown twists that make it a fun read if you're in the book hunting doldrums.  But my critique?  That ending, Mr. Brown, it sure wasn't my favorite.

 The Sea of Monsters - Rick Riordan

Alright, lets be honest here.  I finished Inferno, and was on the hunt for the next book in the Divergent trilogy with no luck.  Meanwhile, this pile of teen lit was sitting on my dresser and, yes, I picked up the next book in the series.  You wanna know what I really think?   I really think I need to stop reading these books.  They're meant for 12-year-olds.  End of story.

 Allegiant - Veronica Roth

So this is the last book in the Divergent series, and, it took me a while, but I finally hunted down a friend at church who would lend it to me.  My thoughts on it?  Well, this whole apocalyptic storyline is pretty intense and at some points your almost not sure who the good guys are.  Ms. Roth got a little heavy handed on the politics side of things, but not too bad.  Ultimately, just be warned: there's a huge bomb dropped on you in the last few chapters that is like - What?????  Why would you do that???!?  Be ready.

highlights #89

This week has been one of those slow down and get things done kinda weeks.  Laundry.  Organizing.  Cleaning.  All that fun stuff.  David is still getting home from work relatively late (ok, midnight is just late, nothing relative about it), but last night was a fluke with him home at 9:00!  No joke, we were ready for bed and almost snoring by 9:45.  It's tiring keeping up with his schedule - and I'm not the one that has to brave LA traffic every morning!

Anyways, in other news, Dave is going on a business trip to Texas next week and I'm going to take that time to enjoy a few days with my family.  No complaining here - except for the fact that he'll be gone...

Here are some fun finds from the web:

castles vs. NYC apartments - morbidly humorous

this was funny

delicious maps

Boden gets me

beardless Disney characters - a little bizarre

from the genius who brought us the cronut

UP in real life!

really cute "watch me grow" stickers

natural makeup

a funny Frozen secret

dress love

and in case you haven't laughed today

xo

bloomin'

Our house is bursting at the seams with flowers right now, and, truth be told, I love it.  I've got flowers in the entry way, on the kitchen table, on the coffee table, on the side table, and in my bedroom - it's like living in a flower shop.  And I've even given some away!  You won't find me complaining though...

My favorite is this freesia//stock combination and I couldn't help capturing it - and oh my gosh, that scent?  Heavenly.  I'm a new found freesia fan for sure.

Also, on a completely awesome note, these were taken on my SLR!  I think I might have figured out her temperamental I'm not going to ever focus or take pictures when you want me to problem.  But we'll see - she's been known to behave before and then decide to freak out.   Fingers crossed.

P.S. David proposed to me three years ago today!  So crazy how time flies so slowly, yet so fast.  Lots of those good memories can be found here.

down south

With David's birthday on Friday and Brooke's Mormon Prom on Saturday it only seemed right that we would hop in the car Saturday morning and book it down to see her all dolled up and celebrate David's b-day all in one.

But first, we had to drop off flowers.  Lots and lots of flowers.  I'm a teacher for our young women at church and we had a program this Sunday - New Beginnings - that celebrates our girls and pumps them up for our program for the coming year.  They needed someone to help with the flowers and I was only too happy to jump up and down to do it.  Buy flowers on your dime and spend all afternoon in hog heaven arranging them?  Sure thing.  I'm on it.

I ended up making two large arrangements and 10 center pieces and my kitchen smelled A-mazing on Friday.  I'm pretty sure I'd be perfectly happy if I was a florist.

After we got those off to someone who could make sure they didn't die between Saturday and Sunday we headed down to Orange County.

When we walked in we had a good laugh:

My mom and I were twins.  Down to our twisted back ponytails and almost our choice of earrings.  Too funny.  I'd say this was out of the ordinary, but then I'd be lying.  

And then we got this cute girl off to the dance - she looked so, so pretty and I love that we live close enough to be able to support her at the little things like this.  The plan is have my camera fixed by her school Prom so we can nix all these sub-par iPhone pics.

After the kids got off we headed down to Laguna Beach to celebrate a certain birthday boy!  We ate at this great grille and I'm still craving those sweet potato truffle fries.  Yum, yum, yum!  It's always a treat to get my mom and dad to ourselves on nights like this and just enjoy being together.  We're selfish like that.

And that was nice wrap to the weekend - except for that pesky hour drive home.  We're working on fixing that sooner rather than later...

another year older

I gotta tell you, there needs to be some sort of rule that says you shouldn't have to go to work/school/real life on your birthday.  You should just have free reign to play all day and celebrate!   You know, if those sorts of things were up to me...

To start off Dave's b-day, I whipped up some superb scrambled cheese eggs and maple bacon (normally it's oatmeal, so be impressed ;) and then sent him out the door to brave the 405.

We had originally planned to grab lunch together, but what with some other things I had to get done that day (insert buying flowers - lots and lots of flowers), we decided we'd grab dinner together in Santa Monica after going to the temple.  By some miracle from the birthday gods, Dave got off work at 5:00 during busy season (what????) so we had plenty of time to celebrate.

We meet up at the temple (after I breezed through a freeway sans-traffic at 4:45 on a Friday night - another miracle) and lo and behold...it was closed.  Till next week.

What?  Fail.

A for effort, right?

We salvaged the night with a delicious dinner of tempura fried green beans (swoon), fried chicken, and Texas toast.  And topped it all off with an order of sticky toffee which they brought to our table and we both stared at it wondering why on earth we ordered dessert when we were already so ridiculously full from our meal. 

But it was Dave's birthday.  You have to order dessert on your birthday.

It was a lovely night and now this boy is 27!  I'm married to an old man.  Just kidding.  But it's crazy to think we met when he was 23 and now we've celebrated 4 birthdays together.  Time sure flies...

Happy birthday handsome man!

baby journal: week 4

     Journal from Friday, March 14th - Posted 5.27.14

Well, the cat is out of the bag!  We're expecting!!  And we're completely and totally overjoyed about it.  And still in a semi-permanent state of shock.  You'd think after trying for a year that it would be a little easier to sink in, but nope.  Still shell shocked.  Shell shocked and excited.

I was reading a girlfriend's blog the other day where she kept a pregnancy journal and I thought that was a great idea.  That's what this blog is about for me anyway, so it seemed an appropriate place for such a thing.  So let's start at the beginning:

We found out we were soon going to be a party of three on Thursday, March 13th, the day before David's birthday.  I knew that time of the month was slated to start on the 14th and up until then we'd had a full twelve months of disappointments.  That was a tough time, especially when everyone I knew seemed to be getting pregnant and starting their families, plus every single person in our ward seemed to keep asking me when we were going to have kids.  That question was the hardest - hopefully soon!  became my go-to answer.  Through a lot of prayer, fasting, and temple attendance I always felt peacefully about our situation, that it would all work out when it was supposed to, but that didn't help the ache in my heart each month when the answer was no.
No, no, no.
Not yet.

After a year of that, you can understand why I decided to just quickly take a pregnancy test a day early, because I didn't want to put any damper on David's birthday.  Lets just find out it's another no and move on so tomorrow can just be a happy day for him.

So I took the test and started getting ready to take a quick shower to wait out my 3 minutes when I looked back at the test after only 30 seconds and saw this:

PREGNANT.  It was positive!  I was pregnant?!!

I immediately started dancing and crying and couldn't believe I took the test without David there!  Now I'd have to wait all day till he got home to tell him!

What with it being busy season, David doesn't get home till late, but he had a meeting for church Thursday night and ended up getting back closer to 9:00 (that's early for him so I was thrilled).  I didn't want to just call him at work and break the news to him without being able to see his face, so I cooked up a plan and waited till he got back to the apartment.  With it being his birthday the next day I decided to give him an "early birthday present."  According to him, this didn't raise any suspicions on his part.  Not even when I almost tackled him when he got through the door and waved the bag in his face telling him to quick go and change out of his suit because I had a present for him to open right now!!! That's not normal behavior...neither is videotaping.  Ever.  He makes my job easy.

 

I love watching that video again.  His face is so priceless at the end: just a big grin.  I stopped recording before we both teared up.  We celebrated with bubbly grapefruit juice, dancing, and a whole lot of Google-ing.  When should I get nauseous?  What can I eat??  When can we find out the baby's gender???  We were so clueless.  And so, so very happy.  We're finally having a baby!

The next hardest thing was that we were spending that Saturday with my family down in Orange County to celebrate Dave's birthday.  Should we say something??  Was is too soon?  We thought about it a lot and ultimately decided to keep our little secret to ourselves a bit longer, but it was the hardest thing ever!  My favorite part was me trying to discreetly brush goat cheese off my potatoes at the restaurant so no one would notice and get suspicious.  Too funny.

In other news, as of 4 weeks our babe is the size of a tiny sesame seed and I'm:
● breaking out like a 12-year-old tween.  Joy.
● periodically feeling like I've been doing a million sit ups - a shadow of things to come, I fear.
● have plenty of congestion and blowing my nose all the time.

● in my effort to stay uber hydrated, I'm having to use the bathroom basically every hour.  Might as well get used to it now.
● and, of course, the girls are pretty darn sore. 

For some reason I keep calling our tiny baby a she.  Who knows why, it just has been rolling off my tongue more easily than thinking it was a little he.  But what do I know, really?  This is my first rodeo, and I could easily be proved wrong right out the gate - we'll just have to wait and see!

highlights #88

With it being sunny and bright until 7:00 PM around here, it is definitely starting to feel like spring.  Funny enough, I never really got used to falling back with the time change in November, so it feels like we're back on track again with all this sunshine ;)  I can dig it.  It's also David's 27th birthday this Friday!  We take birthdays pretty seriously around here so I'm revved up for some intense celebrating.

While I get wrapping presents, here are some fun posts from around the web:

a crazy new way to speed read

not a bad tip

the most gorgeous swimsuit

I feel this dad's pain

we eat enough pizza to justify buying these, right?

blast from the past

I guess I'm in Slytherin

a pretty great copy cat recipe

the truth

pretty great boots

and some gorgeous art

xo

an LA day

Saturday morning we became an apartment of three with my little sister, Brooke, coming up to spend the weekend with us.  Unfortunately we only have the couch to offer her, but she's a trooper and didn't even complain (Note to self: get an air mattress).

We didn't have any plans for Saturday, but what with Brooke coming up and David not having to go into the office (cue happy music), we definitely had to scrounge up some fun plans.

First we headed down into the city to best the iconic Hollywood sign.  Both Dave and I have been saying we wanted to go explore those Hollywood hills and now we can check that off our LA to-do list.  Plus Brooke had already done the hike before - sometimes it's nice to have a veteran with you, if not only for her to tell us where to park.  We had a great time ogling the homes on Beachwood Drive (and accidentally getting stuck on Hollyridge Drive) and enjoying the lovely scenery.  Those views from the top?  Pretty fantastic.

After our 3 mile hike we trekked back down to the car and went out for hotdogs at Pink's.  You know, to negate any possible health benefits from exercising.  Logical.

The half-hour long line was around the side of the building and the hotdogs, as we were told, were just fine, but the experience is worth it.  This little hotdoggerie has been in Hollywood since the 1930's and there are pictures all over its walls of the rich and famous who have stopped there for chili dog.  Truth be told, I'm kind of craving their onion rings right about now...

And that was a wrap!  We came home exhausted, took showers and naps (not necessarily in that order), and then made the most delicious margarita pizza.  I will be happy if more Saturdays are spent like this one.

do re me

So, serving in our church's Young Women's program I've been asked to help with a lot of things from time to time: activities, lessons, etc etc - but for the first time ever, I was asked to help organize a song to be sung by a group of our youngest girls for a big program next week...

Yikes!!  

Lets clarify things: I sing.  I took private voice lessons all growing up and in college - I can learn a song with the help of a lovely pianist - and I do not read music in the slightest/ play an instrument.  So...this has been an adventure for me.  Leading a song, thinking about where to have them breath, and cutting them off...holy smokes.  I have a new found respect for choir conductors everywhere.  Luckily I've got a great pianist who is so on top of things and has really stepped in to teach the girls the mechanics of the music.  Without her, well, it would have been...let's call it interesting.  Good thing cute little 12-year-old girls will look and sound sweet almost no matter what we do ;)

Picture via 

another wednesday night

Last night we drove down to Burbank to see The Saratov Approach with our laurels, a few priests...and basically anyone else from the ward who wanted to come.  It was a party.  And public service announcement for all those going to see a movie in downtown Burbank...there are at least 3 movie theaters in a two block radius of each other in the twisting labyrinth of those Burbank malls.  We know.  We went to all three.  Double check your GPS.

On the movie: I knew coming into the theater that this was going to be a hard story, but it definitely did not play out the way I was thinking it would.  I was super impressed by the acting and quality of the cinematography.  And it had a great message - I'm really glad our girls got to see it and, yes, I got teary eyed.  There.  I said it.

And then afterwards, of course, we had to get some sugar - Krispy Kremes anyone?  Nothing will make you feel like an old fart quite as fast as riding for 30 minutes in a Suburban full of 17-year-olds on a sugar rush belting their hearts out to Whitney Houston.  I may never be able to listen to I Will Always Love You the same way again...

highlights #87

We made it to Wednesday again!  Dave and I don't really have anything planned for this weekend, but...I'm really ready for him to come home for more than 9 hours (7 of which we spend sleeping).  Saturday and Sunday baby, here we come!

In the meantime I'm going with my young women at church to see this movie tonight, and I'm pretty excited about it, although I have been told to bring a hanky because water works are a for sure thing.

While I go do some Fandango-ing, here are some fun posts from around the web!

Hunter makes flats?  Who knew?

these swimsuits are pretty dang cute (I'm especially digging this one)

part of me says I really need to make these

I know we've all seen this little girl, but she's still adorable

be still my renter's heart

the cutest personalized stamps

kudos to Ben & Jerry - this is genius

cut flowers 101

pretty sure I need this Y sweatshirt (go cougars)

too beautiful to eat

a perfect bedroom 

some fun facts about the Oscars - and sign me up for that goody bag! 

this might have helped me through Humanities... 

and just because I still don't want the Olympics to be over

xo

wedding bells

 
This past weekend one of my cousins got married, so we did a lot of celebrating.  First on Friday night with a delicious dinner and a Scottish bagpiper at this place and then on Saturday morning at this lovely venue (which their website does no justice to).

It's always so fun to welcome a new member into the family and this was no exception.  The venue was beautiful, the bride of stunning - and I only really took pictures of Dave and myself...picture fail?  Well, I kind of did it on purpose after seeing this gorgeous picture taken by a wedding photographer a few weeks ago that is totally and completely killed (in my opinion) by all those iPhones and iPads!  What with us sitting towards the back I probably would have been fine, but I didn't want to risk it during the ceremony for sure.  And then during the rest of the festivities?  Ok, that was a picture taking fail.  Oh well, such it is.

We enjoyed catching up with family, eating delicious Italian food & wedding cake, drinking Martinellis, and soaking in the much needed rain that poured, and poured, and poured on us!  Good thing all the festivities were slated to be done inside or else, well, we would've gotten a tad sopping  (and good thing Dave was a sweetheart and volunteered to drive).  But in sum up, we had a great time, and I wouldn't complain if we had more wedding receptions to attend on the calendar...