12 Week Appointmnet

We had our incredible 12 week appointment this morning. 

Our sweet little baby is quite the mover. 

Right away we saw our sweet Little Bean (*for the purpose of typing this I'm going to write he) and he was so active. I called it dancing, Matt's calling him restless and thinks we're in trouble with a hyperactive child.

I wouldn't be surprised...

He was kicking and moving his little arms all over the place.
I feel he already has both of our personalities.
Whenever he would be moving all around on the screen, Lori would try to take a photo. I would start laughing at his adorableness and then a second later he would turn his back on us. There are two scenarios of what he could have been saying:

The Chelsea-like scenario =
"If you're are not going to watch me dance and fully pay attention to me then I'm not going to do it at all!"...back turned.

The Matt-like scenario =
"Oh no! They saw me dancing!"...hides in embarrassment.

Ha!
I love both scenarios so so much!

Our hearts grew today and we both fell so in love with our sweet baby. Boy or girl! We have been laughing to ourselves all day remembering how funny our baby was.

"Hi Mommy & Daddy!"
I loved seeing our babies fingers and little feet. We saw the spine and ribs and even collar bone. Today was amazing. I'm just so in love!

Amazing day...
Here is a video Matt took of the heartbeat.

Why I Do My Job

Today summed it all up.

I had the perfect reminder today of why I do my job.

My team kids and parents came in to the studio this morning at 10am for Dress Rehearsal. 

I fully expected the following: 1,000,000 questions, missing costumes, upset parents. I was ready for it.

None of that happened. 

What DID happen is that the girls looked great! 

Watching them this morning I remembered how they all were at the beginning of the year and even 2 years ago for some. They're going to rock it at competition next weekend. I'm so proud of them! 

I came home and immediately chose all our competition music for next season. 

(Probably a good thing to get a head start before my bumps too big to dance.) 

I'm going to have all of their routines choreographed for next season by the end of this season so that I can tape myself doing them now and then the girls can start learning them, even when I'm too big to dance. No stress next season. That's my goal. I want to be way ahead of the game so I can have way more time with our baby. So...why not get it all done before babies here?! 

I'm so pumped right now! 

I'm going to go dance now :) 

11 Weeks

How Far Along? 11 weeks

How Big is Baby? Our sweet baby is now the size of a lime. 

Total Weight Gain: 9.5 lbs 

Maternity Clothes? Just when I wear "real" pants. I'm usually in dance pants everyday anyways but if we go out or on the weekend, I wear my maternity jeans. 

Stretch Marks? Just 2 on my hip. Matt said he has really noticed my hips getting bigger lately...great. 

Sleep: On and off. One night I'll sleep the whole night and the next I could be up all night. The past few nights I've slept terribly thanks to my awful cold/flu thing I've got going on. 

Best Moment this Week: Having 2 full days off from dance to relax on Sunday & Monday. Unfortunately Monday ended up a sick day.

Miss Anything: Still missing tuna...a lot. 

Movement: Not yet, I can't wait for that!

Food Cravings: Tuna and sweets. I've done a good job of replacing candy with fruit this week. I need to keep up on that. I've been also loving bagels with cream cheese. 

Anything making you queasy or sick:  Still strong smells. It's hard when the dishes aren't done quick enough. I've gotten better with the smell of meat cooking though which is good! Thankfully to my cold I can't really smell anything the past 2 days. I guess thats a bonus?

Gender: 8/9 more weeks until we find out.

Symptoms:  Food aversions, still to nothing specific, just super picky about what I want and when I need it. Ex. I asked Matt to run and get me a smoothie from Jamba Juice while he was at dance with me tonight. He waited about 45 minutes to go get it and by that time I decided I didn't want that at all...

Looking Forward to: Our appointment on Tuesday!! And also competition season to be over for dance. Is that bad to wish? SO stressful and with being pregnant on top of it. Eek.
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Note* Week 10 and now into 11 has been really hard. This was now the 2nd horrible cold I've had while being pregnant. This one resulting in a low grade fever on and off. I've been sick now for 4 days and it doesn't seem like it will be going anywhere anytime soon. Saturday I will be teaching from 10am-7:30pm..oh yeah, that was smart to plan. Being sick and not being able to take anything is tough. It's harder to sleep. With my hormones on top of being frustrated at my running and raw nose...this is not fun. Poor Matt. Really, he's pretty awesome for dealing with me as well as he does right now. He's going to be the most incredible Dad with the amount of patience he has. I love him so much for that.

Note** I'm pretty glad that I have almost made it through my entire 1st Trimester without actually getting "sick". I've ran to the toilet a few times, but for nothing. That's pretty lucky! My main changes I feel lately are my hormones and body changing. My boobs are growing and seem to be doubling everyday lol, can't complain about that. My tummy is growing, so fun! I have no real pain anywhere and have been more tolerant of food than I have been in a long time. I really have been lucky this pregnancy. The only thing I really notice is being winded a lot quicker while dancing/teaching (like within in the first few minutes lol) and I have less patience because everything is just a bit harder than usual while at work. That's all really.

I already cannot wait for this baby to be born though! I feel like the lady from "What To Expect When You're Expecting". You know, the awesome one who tried and tried to get pregnant and then had such a hard time with being pregnant but got her "glow" when she held her baby. I can't wait to hold our baby!!! 

Our Neverland Nursery: Sneak Peak #1

Matt and I decided when we were only dating for about 2 or 3 months that when we had kids our first baby's nursery would be decorated with a Peter Pan theme. We love what it stands for (in our opinion)...to believe in yourself, stay young at heart always, have fun and I always add (to love your mommy) hehe...that's what I'll tell them anyways ; )

When we first envisioned the Peter Pan nursery we always thought we would model it after the Darling Children's Nursery. Then, once we started actually trying to have a baby and it became real, our view on it changed a bit. The part of the movie we love most is when they are actually in Neverland. That Peter never wants to grow up. I've also always had a love for Tinkerbell. We watch the movie together all the time and are now so excited to put all our plans for this room into action! 

No matter if our baby is a boy or a girl, the wall color and mostly everything will be the same for either. The color of the walls is made by Benjamin Moore and is called "Four Leaf Clover". Its a very lively, fresh & spunky color. I always say it reminds me of when you try to color frosting green but can never get it dark enough :)

I purchased large sheets of paper from Moxie Paper at our mall probably 9 months ago. The paper is a wood grain print. Brown background with white ridges. We will frame these in white frames for a pop. We have 3 and each are about 20x24. They will hang above the changing table. This part of the room ties in The Lost Boys and their amazing forts in the forest! 

{sorry this picture is blurry, I just googled woodgrain wrapping paper to find the one we have}

We went a little crazy after our first ultrasound and purchased every character plush from the Peter Pan movie at the Disney Store (Peter, Mr. Smee, Captain Hook, Wendy, John, Michael, Tick Tock & a few lost boys). We got them all but Tinkerbell because they didn't have it but Papa L bought it for us a few days ago :) I did see at the Disney Store that they now have Nana the dog too, but I really think we may have enough now ; ) You can find the plush characters at DisneyStore.com. We also bought a Peter Pan snow globe. Here is a YouTube video I found of it lol. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7KsfGx1knI

I absolutely love Mary Blair's concept art for the movie Peter Pan and Matt and I decided to use the book pages as wall art for above the crib. We chose our 6 favorites that we will hang in large white frames above our espresso colored crib. I ordered the book while we were in WI for Christmas and it came in the mail a few weeks ago. I love it! I like that it is abstract art. Love, love, love!

I've been stuck in the house with a cold and fever all day so I bought a few things we've been dreaming about from Etsy! I've had these items in my Favorites for probably 2 years now. 

Our Peter Pan Shadow Wall Decal from Etsy. You can find it here. 

We were really excited about ordering this. 

I also purchased our DIY Mobile today. I am so excited that its a DIY project I can make for our baby. The kit comes with all the stars, the hoop, string, beads and ribbon but I got to choose our colors. I chose three different teal blues. You can find this kit here. 

We have tons more picked out already including the crib & dresser. I'll post about those more when we're 100% and they're ordered. 

My mom is coming to visit us in March and that is when we'll paint the nursery & put up the decals. I'm so excited!!!

Our Diaper Decision

I am so excited to be a mommy and to have so many amazing new adventures.

I can't wait to wake up every single day knowing I have a beautiful little person who loves me and needs me and wants me to just cuddle with them all the time. I want to do whatever I can to be "Super Mom" for them and in doing so, here is a little about one of our many adventures we will take together as a family...cloth diapering! 

I have made my decision We have made our decision...we are going to be a cloth diaper family! I have wanted to do this for so long. I said I was going to, people said I wouldn't last, I gave up the dream (lol), re-thought about it, researched it, realized I could rock at this, realized Matt can also rock at this...we're doing it! Yay! 

This is something that is growing on Matt. He's so open to learning about it and every time he comes over to watch another youtube video with me learning about them it makes me feel so lucky to have him as a husband. His exact words were "I will support whatever you want to do for this." We are doing cloth diapers for one huge reason...saving money! I will write more about this later. I'll probably have lots of posts about our cloth diaper craziness and fun (and cute pictures in just 6.5 months of an adorable cloth diaper butt..Eeeee!!!)

I have a few things off the bat that I already have learned and know I will do and things I will not do. 

We WON'T use cloth diapers until after the umbilical cord falls off.

We WILL use disposables while on vacations such as Disneyland. Trips to WI for example...we will use cloth while we're there. 

We WON'T use disposables just because we're leaving the house...we have learned that cloth can be just as easy with the right tools in your diaper bag. 

We WILL purchase a diaper sprayer to attach to the toilet for the extra yucky ones.

We WON'T make people watching our children use the cloth diapers.

We WILL use both "All in Ones" and "Two in Ones". All in ones are just that, they are just a diaper made from cloth. You put it on just like a regular diaper, velcro and all. Only difference is you have to wash it instead of throwing it away. These will be what we put on them right after they have pooped. When we start to know our baby's schedule of pooping (trust me, I know there will be surprises too I'm not that dumb), we will use the two in one diapers for those. A two in one diaper is a cloth diaper with an insert inside for extra absorbency. We will also use these at night time. At night you can actually add 2 or 3 cloth inserts to the diaper to avoid any leaks. 

I am going to keep record of how much money we spend on this penny for penny. I want to see if we truly will be able to save close to $2,000.00/year like I've read. We have savings and I don't want to lose that. We've talked and our goal will be to only buy one small/regular sized bag of disposable diapers for each size our child is in. 

At first my hesitations were the following:

*What happens when they poop? Gross! ....Solution: sprayer on toilet. easy.

*Do you have to wash them everyday?....Answer: No. Every 3 days is fine.

*Will they stink up the room in the wet bag?... Answer: Not any more than your Diaper Genie.

I'm all in on this. I can't wait to order some cute little diapers. I'm going to buy a few this afternoon. I just have a few more things I need to read up on before I make the purchases. 

So far BumGenius, Charlie Banana, gDiapers & Fuzzibunz are high on my list. 

I am so excited about this. It will be so much fun to be a mom and have something so big and new to learn. I won't have that awkward first week as a mom where you're like, "Oh my I have NO clue what I'm doing" I have been around, taken care of newborns SO many times, they don't scare me a bit.  I was sad about that a little. This will make up for that I'm sure :) 

You think we're crazy now....this is only the beginning! 

My dad is so confused about me lately lol...tofu? cloth diapers? Ha. 

I love this!

Tuna.

That....

Is all I want. Actually I could eat 12 of them. 

It is 10:30pm and I just lay in bed crying sobbing for a good 10 minutes because I just want a tuna sandwich. Matt was doing his best to not laugh as I kept saying through my tears, "Is it so much to ask for a tuna sandwich?...Tuna & Mayonnaise with cheese on a sandwich with salt and pepper, Tuna & Cucumbers on a little plate, Tuna straight out of the can and then in a bowl with mayonnaise."

This is a serious problem.

I haven't cried or been weird about anything yet. 

I thought I was an awesome pregnant woman who just doesn't get weird and hormonal.

Matt just solved the problem by making me some yummy dino nuggets which are the only things that sound appealing right now. I didn't eat dinner tonight because everything sounded like it would make me sick...everything except tuna.

I can't have any until next week because I had two California Rolls last night. 

I ruined it.

I was dumb. I know all I look forward to is my tuna sandwiches from Subway every Saturday after dance. Today after dance when I went to Subway, I had to smell it but couldn't have any. Instead...just a Veggie Delight for this mama. 

I'm going to ask my midwife how bad it would really be to sometimes have it more than once/week. 

It's seriously making me so sad.

Yes, I know that is absolutely ridiculous, but to me right now, it seems reasonable. Okay, maybe not reasonable, but I just really really want tuna...

It sounds so so good, while everything else sounds absolutely disgusting.

How come the one thing I'm craving is one of the things I'm not supposed to eat. Not fair. I told Matt that after this baby is born he should bring me 50 tuna sandwiches...then he told me I probably have to keep it limited while breastfeeding too. Then I just cried more and sobbed, "then just give them formula!!!" Eep. This is so silly. And so so sad. 

(**Note: I would never stop breastfeeding for a selfish reason such as tuna.) 

(Again, I am writing this because one day I will be able to laugh hysterically with Matt about the night I lay in bed sobbing over tuna. For now, it is really upsetting to me...)

10 Weeks!

Whoa baby! 

How Far Along? 10 weeks

How Big is Baby? Our sweet baby is now the size of a kumquat. We weren't sure what a kumquat looked like so I googled it of course. I have posted a picture of its size at the bottom of this post. I was pleasantly surprised at how big it is! Yay Little Bean, grow baby grow!

Total Weight Gain: 8ish lbs. 

Maternity Clothes? I now have two new pair of maternity jeans and love wearing them. So comfy!

Stretch Marks? Eek! I need to remember to use my cocoa butter. I'm so afraid of stretch marks. I thought I saw some yesterday on my tummy but my skin was just dry, phew! I think I will be one of the unlucky ones who gets them no matter what. 

Sleep: I sleep great lately! I just need more of it. Poor Matt is unfortunately not sleeping so well because I guess I'm all over the place. I also have some crazy intense dreams!

Best Moment this Week: Announcing to the world that we're having a baby!

Miss Anything: Tuna!!!!! 

Movement: I wish :)

Food Cravings: I want tuna all the time. I wish I could eat tuna sandwiches every meal, everyday. It actually makes me feel like crying right now (no joke). Not fair that the one thing I want so bad is something you're not supposed to eat while pregnant. My mouth is watering.   :'( 

Anything making you queasy or sick:  Strong smells make me nauseous. I also feel sick when I get hungry. I have extreme food aversions. I can't eat anything unless it was what I felt like eating in that exact moment. Matt has to wait until 5pm to go grocery shopping for dinner each night because what sounds amazing at noon may sound like the most disgusting thing on earth at 6pm. Sometimes this even happens while Matt's making the food that sounded good...

Gender: ??? 

Symptoms:  Food aversions, heightened sense of smell and the former because of the latter. 

Looking Forward to: Our next ultrasound/appointment which is on January 29th. 

(Just found this picture on Google, pretty big huh?)

Need to Slow Down...

*Note: I'm writing this blog so I can look back and remember, not really for anyone's entertainment but my own. That being said, this post may be really boring for some, but it's real life right now and I want to remember what a crazy woman I was while being pregnant and dancing everyday. I also want our kids to read it one day and know how much I thought about them every second of every day trying to give them best life possible.*

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Making a baby is hard. I should say growing a baby is hard.

My body is going through tons of crazy changes, both expected and unexpected.

I am nothing short of exhausted. I blame that part mostly on my job.

That's what this post is about. I'm working too much. I offer too much. Our team is going to competition in just 2 weeks and to make sure I have all the kids ready I am practicing with these girls everyday, Monday-Sunday. I don't get paid for the team, so I definitely did not have to do this. But I wanted to help them. In doing so though, I'm not helping myself which means I'm not helping our baby which makes me really mad at myself. We've been having practice like this since the 3rd. It's now the 16th and I'm already done. February is going to be so nice. I gave the girls the week off after their competition and then 2 weeks later we have no classes at all anywhere for mid-winter break. *sigh* a whole week off to sleep! 

I have to keep pushing through this. 23 hours of teaching/coaching a week this month. I made it through so far being 8 & 9 week pregnant. Mondays and Tuesdays are the worst. I don't know what I was thinking. Monday nights I teach/coach for 4 hours (4-8pm). By around 7 every night I'm ready for bed. I practically kicked the kids and parents out of practice on Monday. No actually, I did. I said, "Ok seriously, you guys have to go home now (8:05) this baby is eating my stomach! I need dinner!" They all left laughing, while I left starving lol. I need to bring more snacks with me.  Tuesdays are my day from hell. I teach 2-3's and 3-5's ballet/tap from 10:00-11:45...then I come home for lunch and then teach at one of our preschools from 3:00-4:45 (2 more 3-5's classes)...straight from the preschool I drive to the Community Center to teach Girls Hip Hop 5-8 and then Boys Hip Hop 6-10 from 5:00-6:45. Last night a sweet sweet mom brought me muffins because she wanted me to snack in between hip hop classes. The boys were also so sweet yesterday finding out that their teacher was breakdancing WITH a baby in her tummy.... Yeah, that would me stupid me. Last night when I got home I was greeted with the most awesome cramps. (Sorry baby!!!) No more butt spins, donkey kicks, coffee grinders or 6-steps for this mama...

Here's to hoping that weeks 10 & 11 are nice to me! Today I just have 1 class. One beautiful nice class of 4-6 year olds for just 45 minutes at the studio. *sigh* I declared today "My Day," and am still currently in my pajamas with Disney Rides playing on YouTube in the background of our morning. Matt is doing laundry for me. Last night I woke up in the middle of the night stressing about work from my dream and then realized that the thing I was stressing over is actually a problem I need to solve in real life, and then I thought I was going to be sick. Thankfully I fell back asleep. Yuck. 

I need to come up with a solution to cut back on how much I'm teaching. Which also means I'm in the process of cutting back a lot of our classes in general. This stress is not worth it. The most important thing to me in my whole life has always been having a family. I want more than anything to be a "Stay at Home Mom". I'll kind of get to be that, just with lots of work thoughts floating around in my head while I'm making breakfast. That's the part I don't want. Time to fix that. I love my dance kids so so much, but lately, the bigger and bigger my tummy gets...our Little Bean is taking up so much of that love and needs it a lot more. I've got to figure out a good balance.

Okay, no more writing, now I need to go make a game plan and get ready to watch "The View" :) 

Happy Wednesday! 

Pregnancy Thoughts and Happenings

This pregnancy was definitely planned.

It was something that we hoped, prayed and tried for, for months and months.

This journey is something I have been ready for forever.

It is the journey that I've been waiting for with Matt since the day I married him (actually probably before...yeah...definitely since before then).
Last year on my birthday (April 2012) in Seabrook, Matt told me he was ready (without me even starting the conversation...talk about best birthday present ever)...there was no turning back from there. I started taking my vitamins when we got home and still take them every night. 

This pregnancy has already been full of surprises, both good and not so good interesting. 

We found out I was pregnant when I was just 3 weeks and 1 day along. I was too impatient to wait for my period to test, so I listened to the box and tried 5 days before...it worked (faintly) but it worked. 

We were able to tell both of our families in person which was the most incredible blessing. 

I have gained close to 10 lbs. already which has been new to me. I wasn't doing so well with this at first, actually I wasn't doing so well with it until yesterday. Yesterday I took the plunge, with Matt by my side and purchased two pair of maternity jeans. My new love handles no longer hang over my pants (which was hard for me) and my belly actually is beginning to look like an actual bump instead of an actual gut. I never thought I had "dancer syndrome" with my body, but apparently I do. It was saddening me that I was handling it in such a negative way. My number one goal right now is to enjoy every second of this pregnancy that I have been preparing my body for, for close to a year now. I was supposed to be excited about the extra weight. Turns out, I just needed clothes that fit me. Now I feel great and am looking forward to getting bigger...and bigger...and....bigger!

(9 weeks)
We have been taking my weekly bump photos in front of the barn where we got married.

I like to daydream about our baby and Matt and I talk about our sweet Little Bean all the time! 

We have talked about diapers, schools, colleges, discipline, our relationship, Cogsworth, our health, finances and most of all...just how excited we are to meet our little sweetheart! 

We have been lucky in finding and choosing an incredible midwife who makes me feel so confident in my pregnancy, our labor and delivery and in being a mother. We had our first appointment with her at 7 weeks and 6 days. At this appointment we were able to see our sweet Little Bean and we also heard the most incredible sound...our baby's heartbeat! Baby's heart was beating a strong 164. 

I had a vaginal ultrasound because it was early and she wanted us to be able to hear it. Going in to the appointment I did not expect to get to hear it, just to see the sweet little flicker on the screen. The second she started the ultrasound we heard it. Matt was holding my hand. I said, "Oh wow! Is that mine?" Lori said, "No...that's you're baby!" My face went into my hands and I just cried tears of pure joy. Nothing has ever sounded more beautiful in all my life. I can still hear it now. We measured just a day later, but she kept our due date the same, August 15th. 

My friend Jenna described this photo perfectly...our sweet little sea monkey :)

August 15th is my grandma's birthday, so that is pretty special. 

So far I have been feeling pretty good. I am of course exhausted, but when you're pregnant and dancing/coaching 18+ hours a week on top of all the office work...you'll have that. I only feel sick when I get too hungry or too tired. I have yet to actually "get sick", thank goodness. I have extreme food aversions and to nothing in particular. Usually I hate meat. This is only slightly new as I barely chose to eat meat before I was pregnant. I suppose I shouldn't say meat, just beef and pork. I am okay with chicken, but would never choose it. I love fish! Unfortunately, I crave tuna. I was obsessed before being pregnant and now that I am not supposed to eat it, it's all I want. I talked to Lori about this and was given permission to eat (devour) one tuna sandwich/week. (Is it sad that I look forward to Saturdays after dance  all week long just for my 6" tuna sub from Subway??) My mouth is watering right now. I also love anything sweet/sour, ex. Sour Patch Kids, Skittles, Starbursts. 

My thoughts on how I will parent change a bit, but in general stay the same. 

I want our children to eat home cooked meals for every meal and eat out rarely. I did not used to feel super strongly about this, but lately it is becoming more and more important to me. My favorite daydream is picturing waking up each morning with them for breakfast before dance. I want to be the awesome mom that makes delicious breakfasts and we read and cuddle and dance to our favorite kid bands in the morning while the three of us get ready for our day! Matt is in love with this idea too (as long as it involves Disney music to jam and jump around to)!

I want to breastfeed for a year. No longer and hopefully no shorter.  

And my most recent goal, which I have always waffled with...I want to really try really hard to have a natural birth. I am really going to start going to yoga soon and Matt and I are going to take some classes. I know that once I'm in labor that everything is really out of my control and I also want to be okay with that, but I just want to try. I want to be calm and focused. I want our baby to come into a world that is full of joy and calmness. I'm talking calm music, dim lights, no screaming and candles. I get to labor in a soaker tub in our room which I think I will be in love with! (I think part of me feels that this way of delivering our baby will help for them to turn out more like Matt instead of their crazy mama...) No but really, I truly feel that. I want this baby to feel no stress (when possible). 

Okay, so I'm going off on crazy tangents now. 

We are more than thrilled to be parents. We have amazing dreams about our memories we will make with them (of course lots of those including Disney everything..). Matt is currently in the process of turning our kitchen nook into our playroom that will be themed in Disney Parks. This is his project that I am not allowed to touch or really have input on. I'm fully okay with this because I love so much how excited he is to be a dad. 

*sigh* 

This is by far, my most favorite part of life so far. I can't even imagine the happiness that is in store!
Do I really have to wait 30 more weeks to meet our sweet bean. Just when I was learning so much patience actually waiting to be pregnant and now 30 more weeks :) While trying to conceive I used to cry and cry each month I would get my period saying "Now I have to wait another month to meet them!" I need to remind myself daily to soak it all in because it's going fast and it's going to only go faster. The same will be when they are born. This is a big lesson for this mama.

Alright, well I need to go to bed now. My ginger ale is now gone and I should sleep before I feel sick.
If you made it through this whole post...good job!!

Our Special Announcement!

First comes love, then comes marriage...

Then comes our sweet little baby!
Due August 15th 2013!

Matt and I are beyond excited about becoming parents and are enjoying everyday of this new adventure. Matt is going to be the most amazing dad and I am so ready to be a mom! I've waited for this my whole life.  

This blog is about to turn very much about our baby and journey to becoming new parents. It feels so good to not keep it in any longer, now the world knows.

I will write more soon...life has been super busy over here with dance, but I can't wait to share all the goodness :)

2012 Recap: Our Year of Adventures!

2012 was amazing. I could not have asked for a better year. I am so excited that it is 2013 and for all the new adventures we'll experience this year!

January 2012
We experienced Snowmaggedon. We were snowed in our apartment for 3 days. We could't go anywhere. It was fun and I made tons of hair bows! Cogsy loved the snow, he still does :)

February 2012

We went to Vancouver, B.C for a weekend. I loved it so much and can't wait until we make another trip just like it. Hmmm, maybe we should plan that for this Feb?!

March 2012

We started watching Miss Avery a few days a week. We're all done watching her now and we sure are going to miss seeing her all the time. She's such a little cutie patootie! I'm so glad we have Chris and Katie in our lives and we will forever be Avery's Auntie Chelsea & Frunkle Matty (Friend/Uncle...Matt made it up lol). I'm so glad we got to love on her so much in her first year :) She's ONE now...that went way too fast! Her birthday party is coming up and I'm so excited to spoil her some more :)

April 2012

We went on a getaway to our favorite little coastal town, Seabrook WA for my 24th birthday. We brought Cogsy along and he was in puppy heaven. He loves it there just as much as we do. I still tell Matt that someday I want to own a cottage there. :) We're going back again for my birthday this year!

May 2012

We went on an awesome hike with Matt's parents and family friend, Whitney. We hiked up to the top of Rattlesnake Mt. and the views were beautiful! We felt super healthy and accomplished.

June 2012

June was a busy busy month for work. Wait...this summer was insane for work. We opened our dance studio and had 11 summer dance camps. Talk about being worked to the bone. Yikes. Never again ; )

July 2012

We celebrated Matt's 26th birthday and lucky him...we took my dance team kids to Wild Waves for a day of fun! (Matt actually did have a ton of fun) ; )

I also hosted Mel's Bridal Shower and it was super fun. A wine tasting day. It was a lot of research and prep but I loved every second of hosting that for her. I'd do it again tomorrow if I could :)

August 2012

Highlight of August was just finishing all of my summer camps. I have never worked that hard in my whole life. We were thrilled when Matt's parents invited us for swimming and dinner while they stayed at Suncadia for a weekend. We had such a fun night and it was the last night of my camps! Perfect end to that crazy crazy summer! : )

September 2012

We celebrated our First Anniversary while celebrating Mel & Clint's wedding day! Very special September 2nd :). The next day we headed out on our 7-night Alaskan Disney Cruise...best vacation ever! Then 10 days later headed to Whistler for a week with Matt's family. Another incredible vacation. We conquered many fears together ziplining and going on the Peak to Peak gondola!

October 2012

We hosted our 2nd Annual Fall Feast Family Fun Day and I worked my butt off again prepping my girls for their November Disneyland performances!

November 2012

We took ourselves and my team kids to Disneyland!! I miss it already :)

December 2012

We had a fabulous and memorable Christmas with both sides of our family.

I don't need to write about it because I'll never forget it :).....

Now I am so ready for 2013. My brother posted to coolest quote on Facebook today and I love it so much that I'm going to post it here..

"Today is Chapter 2013, Page 1 of 365"

I'm going to make each day count.

Christmas Eve/Christmas 2012

*Written while we were in WI*

We have been having a blast with my family. 

The kids are all getting older now and this trip we can really feel that. They're all doing their own thing and then when it's time, we can all be together and really have fun. Cody, Caleb & Matt have been playing video games, Cirrah and Cylie have been dancing machines and I've got a lot of time to just chill in the kitchen and living room to just chill with my mom and dad. 

Christmas Eve was great this year.

My Auntie Torri (Dad's sister), Uncle Curt, my cousins (Gabby, Jacob & Marina) and my Grandma H. all came over for Christmas Eve dinner and gifts together. We always spend Christmas Eve with them. Gabby was so excited to see me and I loved how much time she wanted to spend with me. She's already 5 and in Kindergarten! I can't believe it. 

We got to show them our wedding video which was special because none of them got to be there. My Grandma had not seen any pictures either so she was blown away. She asked me what our last name was and I told her it was Italian. She said, "Ooo, you married a hot Italian guy!" Ha! Earlier while watching our video she also told Matt, "Oh wow! You're a good kisser, I can tell!" Hehe. She had tons of awesome comments all night. Good for lots of funny stories. She also had some not so nice ones but overall it was good lol.

Cirrah was so excited for Santa to arrive all night. She had such a hard time last night getting everyone to just "Go to bed!" We all played Disney Scene It before bed and Cody won. Boo. Once all the kids were sleeping we put all the presents out. I was exhausted! I went to bed before everyone else. Matt, Cody and my parents stayed up until 3am watching Batman: The Dark Knight Rises. Now they're all exhausted today. I am too after all the turkey I had for dinner tonight, mmmm. 

This morning was a blast because Cirrah still believes in Santa. Caleb totally plays along for her (even though he's younger than she is). It's very sweet. My mom would make a slip saying, "Oh, we had a hard time finding that..." and Caleb would say, "You mean SANTA did....riiiiiigggghhhhhttt!" Such a good boy. We all had a very nice Christmas and my parents did a great job making the kids so happy. They each got a little tablet. They think they are just the coolest things around :) 

(our poor puppy Tobey doesn't have much longer...Cody fell asleep with him on his lap...so sad, we've had him since I was 11.)

This evening my Auntie Torri, Uncle Curt and Marina came back over here for Christmas dinner. We pretty much had Thanksgiving dinner. My mom did that because she knows Matt doesn't like ham (even though we always have ham....little butt). It was fun spending time with them again. We're going to go snow tubing with them on Friday so we'll get to see them one more time before we leave! : )

It's been fun having Cogsworth with us here. My family loves having him here with us. He's been so good. He's having fun playing with my parents dogs. 

It's been a great trip, I'm going to be sad to go.

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We had a very nice trip with my family :)