Hair Cut

So, I have needed a haircut for a long time now. I have been putting it off for a while now, and we decided that we could save a bit of money by having Amber cut my hair. Now, its not that I don't trust her, but I will admit that I was very hesitant to let her cut my hair. But, we had a set of clippers that we got for Christmas... so Wednesday was the appointed day.

I have to admit, for it being her first time, she did a pretty good job. It was slightly scary when she started out by reading the instructions on hair cutting.

Well, for those of you who are unaware, the guards on the clippers all have numbers... from 1-8. The instructions say to start with a small number on the lower part of your head, then go to the next largest number for the next part. The idea is to have a gradual taper.

About halfway through the haircut, Amber realized that she had reversed the instructions... she was cutting the top of my head short, and leaving the sides long... Oops!

Luckly it all turned out all right.

Number 18

So, Amber decided that we needed to start taking week-by-week pictures of the belly. I wanted to be included. And I'm winning.

Winning... is that the word I'm looking for?

The Big Picture

So, as I've mentioned a bit on here, I've been pretty sick for the past 4 months...*sigh* yeah that's a long time. It's been something very difficult for me to deal with, mainly because I feel so helpless and when I was in the middle of it, I couldn't see what it was that I was supposed to be learning. I mean, people always say, you have trials so that we can learn and grow and be strengthened: well, what was the point of this trial? I couldn't grasp it because all I could see was that all my old habits, my anchors, had been rooted up: I no longer read my scriptures every day, I no longer prayed everyday, I could barely keep clothes clean let alone my apartment clean and dinner ready every night...I felt like everything I had once controlled was now spiraling away from me---and I was supposed to learn something from all this?!

As it turns out, I have begun to see the lessons and strengths afforded to me. I hypothesized a while ago that now that I've been so sick, if nothing else, I know how to be compassionate towards other people, specifically sick people--I've experienced the worst end of it. I never thought how soon it would happen though. Being in a young family ward in Provo, Utah, there are MANY young pregnant women.

There was this one, just this Sunday, who was crying most of the day, and when I came out of Relief Society, she was sitting on some stairs, obvious that she'd been crying. I'd met her once, so I approached her, reintroduced myself and asked her if she was okay. She said she's just been sick for a little while: She is pregnant. I was so grateful that I could honestly say, "I know exactly how you feel." I really felt like I could be a support to her...not necessarily by sharing how much worse I felt, but by really sympathizing with her situation. My testimony is growing and was strengthened this past Sunday that yes, I was sick for a reason. It was hard. It was so hard. But I can learn from it, see the good from it, and then be better for it.

Aren't we blessed to know the BIG picture?

Oh Baby, Baby!

So here is our happiest latest news! We just had an ultra sound today (for free!) because we participated in a study, and these are just three of like twelve pictures we got! We also recorded the ultra sound and Justin is working on putting it on a DVD and we might put a clip of that on here as well. :-D
So, our baby is in fact a little baby boy! yaya!! It was so much fun! He moved around so much and wouldn't really cooperate with the ultra sound wand: he kept turning towards my back so we didn't get a really great face shot of him.


So, this first picture is the best profile shot we could get. His little nose is by the arrow and that big white thing in his head is his brain! so smart...haha. He looks kind of like his head is floating, but he does have a body! That's what the next picture shows. It's just his whole body with his rump in the air. The two dark spots inside his body are his stomach and his bladder. :-)

And the last picture is our comical one. lol It's his bum. See the perfect little cheeks where the arrow is pointing? haha...so exciting!


We haven't decided on any names for a boy yet (we had the girl name all planned out...) and we might even take suggestions! haha! feel free to send 'em our way. It's a great miracle and blessing...I must say, it does make being sick for the past 4 months a lot easier, just knowing that there really IS a little boy growing inside of me. It makes me so excited, so emotional, and so grateful. And to top all that off, it was a beautiful day today! The sun was out, it was windy and warm and oh so nice! I can't wait to go swimming!

That's our update, friends! We'll keep y'all posted!