Baby Update

So I am absolutely lousy at posting and figured I should probably give and update to my few readers. I am doing well. I finally have energy and motivation and so my house is finally clean once again and we have clean laundry :). I keep getting bigger and so far I've lost 16 pounds and gained only 2 pounds back... it wont hurt my feelings if this trend continues. Well I thought I would put up some pictures for you all to see... I got my first ultrasound at 18 weeks and we found out its a girl! We are naming her Bobbie Jo Ashley. Bobbie is after my dearest friend and Jo is after me, and Adam contributed Ashley :).

Here is a full body picture of her. She is quite the wiggle worm, I am pretty certain she inherited the wiggli-ness from my side, Adam's family can be compared to the Cullens off of Twilight when it comes to being still lol. Our poor ultrasound guy had a heck of time getting all the pictures he needed to because she wouldn't hold still, our ultrasound took 45 minutes! But it was quite exciting to see that she is so alive and healthy and that ALL of her limbs definitely work.

Here is a picture of one of her feet. She had them both up there and it looked perfect, but again the wiggli-ness took over and this is what we got after he clicked the button. I still think its adorable.

Lastly, here is me at 22 1/2 weeks. Everyone keeps telling me I've "popped" all of a sudden and I don't know if its a compliment or not, but its nice to know I look definitely pregnant and not just possibly fat. I am totally enjoying this amazing experience and getting to share it with my wonderful husband. I can't wait until he can actually feel her moving. I look forward to when I get to meet her face to face. I am already getting so many insights into her personality its astounding. Here is one of her personality traits to make you giggle, she ABSOLUTELY hates it when I eat ice cream, popsicles, or anything cold like that. When I eat them she gets so wiggly and squirming and then stops after a minute or two. I think she stops wiggling when my tummy has finally warmed it up to body temperature. Definitely thinking she hates the cold lol. Its so exciting to be able to experience all of these things.

Amazingly Blessed!

Well I haven't written a blog in forever and figured it was well past time so here it is. I have to start by saying God truly is phenomenal and has blessed Adam and me with so much! Sometimes I can't believe that I have been blessed with so much, I feel a little spoiled actually because I don't know what I did to ever deserve so much joy, happiness, and blessings in my life!

Adam and I are doing amazing. I can't help but just fall a little more in love with him as time goes by. He is my best friend, confident, lover, and supporter! Sometimes I can't help but smile constantly knowing that we've made it through many struggles and trials in life and despite all of them we are more in love than we've ever been.... sorry enough with the sappy lol!

Next I am so grateful for God blessing us with this wonderful baby growing inside me. Though there has been heartbreak and struggles to get to this point I am so grateful that I have this amazing opportunity to be a mommy and Adam a daddy. I have no feelings at all to what the baby will be as far as gender is concerned, but I will just be happy with a strong, healthy baby. April we get to find out what it is!

I am grateful for the material blessings that Adam and I have as well. Sometimes I can't believe we have what we have and that we both have such wonderful jobs! I know people often say that there is always good with the bad and that the good things can't last forever... I am finding more and more that I don't believe that. Sure things can get hard and there are deffinitely trials in life but the good can ALWAYS out weigh the other. Even if everything material was taken from me and all I had was my family, I would still have everything I need to make it through life.Well I gotta get ready for work and pick up the house a bit. I hope you are all doing well and are happy and that life is or is becoming what you hoped it would/could be.

Gratitude Post

I always love having Thanksgiving and Christmas as a time to reflect on the wonderful blessings I have in my life. I have been super busy and sick this holiday season and therefore haven't had a lot of time to take a moment and post my gratitude list. With out any further wait, here it is:

*Husband! I am oh so grateful for my amazing husband and his amazing strength and dedication to become better. He has now officially quit smoking for 3 MONTHS!!!! I am beyond excited! Now it seems like the temple is so much closer then its ever been before! I know it will still take some time to get there, but now there is nothing in his way to gaining his testimony back.

*Baby! We found out a week or two ago that I am pregnant again. I am hestitant to become too excited because of the fear of losing this one as well, but so far everything seems to be going well. I am approximately 7 weeks and I have an amazing doctor who is keeping a very careful and close eye on me and the baby. Only time will tell but I trust the Lord to know what is best.

*Family! I love both mine and Adam's families and the blessings they all are in our lives. I struggle sometimes with getting along with certain family members, but still the same I am grateful that I have family and they love me.

*Friends! I am so grateful for my true and understanding friends. I only have a few now, but I am so grateful for them and the love, support, understanding, and outside advice they provide me with when everything seems to get a little cloudy.

*The GOSPEL! and the foundation and rock it is at a time when so much of the world is built upon the sand. It doesn't falter at the tides and it doesn't not fall at the pressures of the world. It continues to remain steadfast and untouched by the hand of satan.

*My Ward and Bishop! I am so grateful for my extraordinary ward and Bishop! I can not begin to sum up my gratitude for their understanding, support and love for me, my husband, and now my brother Lance and his non-member wife and their baby who have moved into our ward as well. I truly feel like our ward is a Zion ward and truly understand the love of Christ and this gospel.

*Jobs! I am so glad Adam and I both have jobs! For a while it looked like Adam's job might in jepordy due to the current Economic situation. But so far so good!

*A House and a Home! At a time when so many other seem to be struggling to keep their houses or have already lost them, I am grateful we have a Home and our House to put it in.

The list can go on forever but I prefer not to bore you too much. I am just grateful to Heavenly Father for all the wondeful blessings and people he puts in my life. I am grateful that we do not live in a country that is war ridden and falling apart at every turn. I am grateful for the freedoms I have and the angency to believe in what I choose. I am just so grateful for all the amazing blessings I have in my life!

Routine?!?! What on earth is that!

That's has how I have felt for the past couple of years. No routine. No schedule. No method to the maddness, just simply maddness! Its been driving me nutts! All the things I NEED to do have a sentence that usually follows it and sounds like this: "Someday!" or "When life slows down a little bit." or "When things aren't so crazy." And somehow (still can't figure out how LOL) those things I NEED to get done, DON'T! Imagine that? lol

So with everything else in life seeming to be struggling greatly I decided there is no more time for the "Someday!" or "When life slows down a little bit." or "When things aren't so crazy." excuses. Life is now and if I don't get a hold of things before we have children (someday) I will NEVER get a hold of things.

So the other day I sat down and put together daily schedule/routines for me personally as well as my house work, because embarassingly enough, my house is DISGUSTING! I swore it would never be like this, and it's been in this sad shape for the past 3, 4, maybe 5 months! Isn't that pathetic? So here is what my schedule/routines look like:
This is my daily schedule. I know it's kind of hard to see (sorry). If your really intrigued to what is on it, you can click on it to make it much bigger (big enough to read), same witht the one below. I figured there is probably no better way to start my day than with what is most important! So scriptures and prayers are first and then exercising. I kind of arranged my day with the most important things being first and then on down the list. I have made two copies of this and laminated them. I will have one in my bedroom and one in the kitchen.
This is my house duties list. Anything that is the dark maroon means it needs to be done on that day of the week. This way I'm only having to clean and take care of one room at a time and I'm not overwhelming myself. Then on Saturday I will do a deep clean of everything. I have made two copies of this as well and have on in my bedroom and one in the kitchen.

I hoping that with these two begining tools I will be able to make a "method" to the maddness, and no longer will it be just maddness! For my exercising section I am going to do a mix between walking, Pilates, and use of dum-bells. I am going to order in the next little while a manual treadmil (one with out a motor). I can get a brand new one with the electronic part on it that will tell me the aproximate distance I've walked, the speed, how long I've been walking, and aproximate calories burned, for $120 shipped. So I think it will be a wise investment so I don't have any excuse in the freezing cold winter NOT to exercise. I am also starting a food and drink diary. I'm buying a little notebook (small enough to fit in my back pocket) and I will carry it around with me all the time so I can keep track of what I am eating and how well I am doing on drinking fluids, particularly water. I think I'll be able to do it, WITH the help of Heavenly Father. I think most ventures in my life only become accomplished when I include him in them. Kind of like the business partner that will make the business a success....

6 Quirky Things About Me

6 Quirky Things About me

The rules are: List 6 quirks about yourself and then tag six people. Leave them a message on their blog letting them know they have been tagged( I may skip this little bit). (Since I however do not have 6 people I know that check my blog, I will choose not to tag anyone...)

1.) I am a music JUNKIE! I don't think I've really had any addictions in life (aside from when I used to bite my nails) but I am pretty certain I am addicted to music... it serves as my own personal therapist! Except I don't have the $100 price tag to go with it :).

2.) I am dying to learn how to play the cello! Next to the piano I find the cello to be one of the most amazing sounding instruments and my fingers ache with desire to learn how to play it!

3.)My eyes like to change colors. Depending upon my mood, my clothes, or simply my phycial state of health will cause them to change between Green, vibrant green, blue, and gray.

4.) My favorite thing to do is learn! I love picking a topic and then visiting the library to see what knowledge I can gain on the topic.

5.) I love elk meat better than any other meat out there, including beef! (Note I am not a huge eater of meats but I do love having a good elk steak every now and then! Delicious! Or anything traiditionally made with beef I prefer to make with elk).

6.) I enjoy hunting and target shooting with a gun or my bow. I am all about self-survival and like the idea of being capable to help provide for and/or protect my family (don't I sound like a true, deep in the woods redneck? LOL)

When life gives you lemons...

make lemonade!!!!! (However sometimes I feel like taking the lemons and squirting them in the eye of the person who gave them to me. However since sometimes it is myself that has produce the lemons I choose to not follow the above feeling.)

I truly am and optimist however sometimes my optimistic spirit feels more like a cat who just had a thousand gallons of water dumped on it resulting in a wet, angry, miserable, frustrated, cold, and vengeful CAT. As of late things have been going alright. God has continued to bless us with the simple neccesities of life as well as the occasional not-so-simple-but-wonderful things of life.

I can't complain too much because God has blessed us so much financially at a time that it seems like so many others are struggling greatly, however I feel that sometimes blessings, as mentioned above come with a price that we feel we would gladly trade, i.e. the financial blessing for other blessings.

In the past couple of weeks I again have been given "learning experiences" (most the time I prefer to call them trials, but not trying to be too much like the wet cat, I am trying to let my optimistic side prevail). We are pretty certain that again I have had another miscarriage in the past couple weeks. The blessing atleast in this one was that I was not readily anticipating it as I was with the previous pregnancy, because I wasn't sure if I was pregnant. In a train of events that would be oh so difficult to try and put into words, I have learned something from these miscarriages. Now this may sound odd to many but through much praying and striving for personal revelation, as well as some amazingly sad happenings I feel strongly that there is a reason for my miscarriages. Adam and I will be unable to have children until we are sealed in the temple. Someone who was helping me try to sort through the fog mentioned this to me "With the way the world is going, do you think your promised little babies are waiting for the protection of being sealed to you before they try and make the venture to earth and survive the last days?" I had never thought of that before. My more selfish side says I want a baby right now and that it is unfair I have to wait. But my more spiritual side can understand my babies wanting to wait. I understand all things happen in the Lord's time, but sometimes it just doesn't seem fast enough.

In other events we learned that Adam's left lung is really not doing so well at all. I am almost certain it is cancer but my stuborn husband refuses to hear anything about it. We have started him on herbal remedies to try help stop and decrease any possible growths that may be occuring, but it doesn't make any easier dealing with the idea of him possibly not being in my life. I received a priesthood blessing from my bishop weeks ago that promised me we would live a long, happy and prosperous life together, IF we lived righteously. However his habit of smoking has been almost impossible for him to quit, and it makes me so nervous about what the outcome may be if he doesn't quit soon! I try to remain positive and look at it as God's way of helping him quit so we can begin the babysteps of getting to the temple, but sometimes (being the stubborn and sometimes demanding person I can be) I want to make my husband quit right now and see things my way... since this will not happen I will continue to pray and hope that my husband can have the ability to overcome this awful habit and that his body will be able to heal from the damage...

O how I love camping!

So we went camping from Monday through Wednesday of this week and really was a ton of fun... We did it all in the tents and I must say aside from when it rains I like camping in a tent more than I like camping in a trailer... that is if I have a decent air mattress to sleep on... So following this are a ton of pictures from our adventure. We pulled in mid-afternoon on Monday and set up camp. Shortly after setting up it decided to rain (it had been threatening ALL day) so as dumb as it sounds we really had now where else to huddle under aside some HUGE pine trees that surrounded camp to keep dry. It was a lot of fun and it's also where we ended up cooking our tin foil dinners in the dutch ovens using bourquets... Any how with out further adou here are the pictures. The one above is a picture of the cut throat Adam caught on the second it day, he was delicious! (I love when he smiles :D)

This one is of me doing the FAKEST laugh in the entire world LOL... we were bored sitting around the camp fire and our friend Daniel had our camera... he's like "JoAnna pretend like you just heard the funniest, knee slapping joke you've heard ever!" So this picture was the result of my attempt... we all ended up laughing even harder after the fact.

This is our friend Daniel with his first catch on the first day... he was delicious too! Yumm I love eating fish that is seasoned and then cooked over the fire!

These two are our friends kids; Gwen and Gavin.... They are so much fun! They were having a fun time getting to brush their teeth and then spit in the bushes. Needless to say it was quite entertaining and humerous to watch.

This is Adam and Me on our four wheeler when we went for a ride! It was so much fun and the place we went to was super lucious and green and EVERYTHING was so alive!

This is Adam, me and Gavin on the wheeler, he ended up falling asleep in my arms towards the end of the drive. He's so cute!

This is Dan, Cass, and Gwen on their four wheeler. We had a lot of fun and had a sort of different version of a pine cone war through out the duration of the ride.

All in all it was a ton of fun! I love camping and being completly lost in the forest! It reminds me of the most simple and beautiful things in life! Plus its a such a great escape to just disappear and lose some of life's worries in the process!