HAPPENINGS

In between pregnancy and our crazy house...

In August we bought a CAR!!

Phil found a steal through the VW dealership he was working at...

Our first time with a car payment though... boo!

But, he was really excited to not drive a clunker anymore.

Except after a week the alternator went out on the side of the freeway.

That was a bummer.

Our dear friends the Schmidt's moved to Louisville!

We pouted quite a bit.

These three boys had been inseparable for the past year,

(which was a really big deal since Phil and Brad both are really "picky" with their friends)

and we could not have asked for better friends!

We sat with them at church, watched sports, had dinners, everything.

Fer cute!

And these ladies are my favorites!!

I'm so sad we don't live close anymore!!

In August Phil went on a training trip for work,

so I took my niece out on a Sonic date!

She was so cute, she kept asking to go to a craft store!

On Labor Day, we all went to Chili's for dinner!

Cuz we're lame and don't play baseball anymore.

My short sisters.

The sibs!

In October we carved pumpkins with our new ward-friends, the Weekes.

This was our attempt at creativity.

Then we did the annual Pumpkin Carving with Aunt Rebecca!

A little better, I thought!

One of my Laurel's, Elise, went on her mission!

I'm so proud of her and can't wait to hear more of how she's doing!

We ended up using the same name for Penny's middle name!

Cuz we love her, and Phil loves that sports car.

For the Leue Halloween party, I decided to dress up as a punching bag.

Cuz, with the baby in there, that's exactly how I felt.

Phil was a remote.

Stuck between the couch cushions.

Competitive Phil. Naturally.

One random day I accidentally locked myself out.

Don't remember how I did it. But I did, and Sarah had to come save me.

At the end of October Phil left his job at the VW dealership and partnered up with a guy in our ward.

We're becoming really good friends with Pres and Brooke now, and Phil is SO much happier there!

He likes not getting his hands dirty, but mostly just likes making more money.

Even if he has to work six days a week.

Then Sarah had her own car problems and Phil helped her.

I finally pieced together a denim quilt! Phil's been asking me to do it since we got married.

Now it just needs the back.

Which, if it's anything like the last quilt I did, could take a couple years.

At the beginning of November, Dr Brown called in sick one day and said he was going to be taking a break for a while. We got a sub doctor to fill in at the office for a little while, but Dr Brown never ended up coming back, so they hired a new doctor. It changed everything about the office, and honestly I was kind of ready to leave when he did, but I knew no one would hire me for just a few months, so I had to stick it out to earn money until the baby came. I miss seeing him almost every day - he was like a dad to me for the three and a half years that I worked there.

His patients all loved him and had almost as hard of a time adjusting to a new doctor as I did.

I hope things start looking up soon, but I'm glad I don't have to deal with it anymore.

At work every month we would have staff meetings.

Every meeting we have some silly contest for $50.

Not gonna lie, I probably won about half of the contests while I was there.

This one was cereal box puzzles.

Which I won, of course.

Then we sold our Corolla.

We bought that dented sucker right after we got married,

so it was kind of weird to say goodbye.

But the transmission was totally dead, so we were glad we had the Jetta already.

It was a good little car, and we sold it for $400 less than we bought it four years ago.

Not too shabby.

Mom and Dad came up with Adam to Utah for Thanksgiving.

So we went bowling, and Sarah beat me :(

So I had to give her a back massage.

Then cousin Stephanie had her baby shower at a cute restaurant in SLC.

It was not fair, she was 37 weeks and I was 25, and we were the same size!

She's a babe, and now her babe is a babe.

For Thanksgiving Phil dominated the Monkey Bread.

Again.

He's getting pretty darn good at it.

And I love it, cuz it's the one day of the year Phil's happy to spend a few hours in the kitchen.

In a sexy apron.

Thanksgiving dinner at the Leue's was delicious!

They finally did a deep-fried turkey for the first time, and it was amazing!

I always love hanging out with my in-laws! I got so lucky in that department!

After dinner the boys were playing tetherball, and I was watching with Amy.

It was slowly getting more and more intense,

and we were laughing at how funny they were being,

and then suddenly Phil's shoe went flying past his nephew's head!

And I caught it on camera!! (See the right picture)

And I love my family, and I love how close Phil is with his brother Jesse.

It's tots adorbs.

Bright and early on Black Friday morning, we hopped in the car for Rexburg to see Michelle and Austin and Emma! It was kind of silly when you think about it, we drove four hours to spend about four hours with them, then drove four hours straight back.

But Emma's adorable, so who cares.

Part of the trip included a walk.

So I held Emma until my tired pregnant body couldn't hold her anymore.

I felt pretty wimpy, not gonna lie.

We stopped at Temple Square on the way home and dropped off Mom and Adam so they could see the lights.

Sarah and I drove around the block a few times and picked them back up.

One random Friday, the power went out at our office in the middle of the day.

We were in the middle of a procedure with this guy, so we improvised with window-light to finish him and then cancelled the rest of the day.

Phil's sister Molly came to visit for Christmas and New Years, so we had a party while she was here!

Not gonna lie, I was shocked at how big her baby was!

(that's a 4-month old, 25-ish lb baby, friends!)

Everyone says Leue's have big babies, and I've seen my fair share, but for some reason the reality of that possibly happening to me really hit me that day. But we turned out okay.

Lots of girl cousins! I can't wait for baby girl to meet them all!

Holding our friends' baby Molly. Such a sweetie.

SO baby hungry at this point.

Sorry for the random mash-up of events. This catches us up to New Years!

THE BUN AND THE OVEN

Reference back to the previous post:

So...we were thinking about buying a house.

We'd been planning on getting pregnant for a while, but nothing had happened yet.

So we felt prompted to move forward with the house.

We closed at the beginning of June.

Early July, my family had a week-long reunion.

I didn't take pictures because I suck.

I had stopped keeping track of my cycles a few months before, 

because it was becoming more discouraging than helpful.

But coming up to the reunion I knew it had been a while, 

so I thought "If I don't start at the reunion, I'm taking a test when I get home."

Reunion was awesome.

On the last day of the reunion, I was feeling REALLY sick.

Like up-all-night-in-the-bathroom sick.

In the morning I threw up, and asked Phil, my dad, and my brother to give me a blessing.

Phil blessed me to take care of myself, and just "slow down"

Everyone in the family (OF COURSE) thought I was pregnant.

I kept thinking "if this is morning sickness, I don't want it!"

I spent most of the day keeping away from people and taking it easy.

Which sucks when you're at a Packard reunion.

Then my (male) cousin got the same symptoms.

Which made me feel better, cuz I was pretty sure HE wasn't pregnant!

So food poisoning.

The next day I felt fine, and we went home.

That day was our fourth anniversary

and I was scheduled to sing the national anthem at the local minor league baseball game.

On the way home from the reunion,

I picked up a test while Phil was at the store grabbing something for the car.

My family was staying at our house that night and going to the game with us.

So we got home, and while I was getting ready for the game I took the test.

HOLY CRAP.

I was so excited!

I had taken my fair share of tests before so I was trying to not get too hopeful,

But man I was so excited!

We had dinner and went to the game, and I sang.

Came home, everyone went to bed,

and I told Phil I had an anniversary present for him.

I showed him the test, and he looked at it for a minute and said

"I have no idea what I'm looking at here."

I showed him what it said, he looked at it again, slowly started nodding, and said "OK..."

kind of in a calm way.

I said "Phil, this is the part where you act really excited and kiss me!!"

So he did.

AAHH!

The next week I had a few times when I was eating something and suddenly I didn't feel like eating it anymore. But I never felt nauseous, and never threw up until a few months later when I changed my prenatals. But that was nothing.

I had my first doctor's visit a few weeks later, and turns out I was 8 weeks along!

Due March 8th!

 I few weeks later I got a UTI, which took 3 weeks of antibiotics...

Awesome...

 At my 12-week appointment, the doctor couldn't find the heartbeat for a long time.

Which is SO freaky.

I hate how many people I know COMPLETELY understand that feeling.

So he got the ultrasound out and tried again.

There she was!

(you can see the outline of the head)

 After that appointment, we called my mom and dad, then we went out to eat,

then we went to Phil's mom's and told her and her husband!

Babies!!

We told a few of our close friends and family, and then told Facebook a few weeks after that.

http://thewaysleueslove.blogspot.com/2013/09/gettin-busy.html

But remember that last post about all the house craziness??

Yep, I was pregnant during all of that.

Talk about hormones.

I felt like I handled it relatively well, but man was I glad to have my life back to normal!

Around 17/18 weeks I started to feel her move a little bit. Barely.

At twenty weeks, right around Halloween-time,

we got to see her up close and personal.

 I felt pretty neutral on the gender idea - I didn't really have any preference or "feeling" of what it was,

but when I saw she was a girl I felt so surprised and I cried a little! I was so excited!

Twenty one weeks

Phil felt her move for the first time that day.

So then I got a little crazy and crafty over the next few weeks.

 Twenty four weeks

 Twenty seven weeks.

I finally got maternity pants right around that time. Bliss.

 I had been staying really active and working out so far,

But right at 28 weeks I tore my ab muscles right under my ribs.

Lots of ice and lots of rest, and no more gym!

I miss working out so bad!

I think this was about thirty four weeks? 

 I found this sleigh crib for a steal on KSL... $50!

 And I made the crib skirt, bumper pads, pillows, and fabric circles to hang on the wall.

 And a nursing cover, carseat canopy, and pacifier clips!

 Thirty six weeks!

A sweet gal in our ward threw me a shower with friends/ward members,

and my awesome sister-in-law Tracy and mother-in-law threw me a family shower!

So many cute clothes and "staples" for the babe!

We finally had our "stuff" together.

Kind of.

Overall, being pregnant was so awesome!

I never felt sick, I stayed busy working all the way up to the week she was born (upcoming post),

and we were even able to get a few vacations in! (another upcoming post)

Besides the ab-tearing, I felt really healthy and strong up until the last few weeks.

I feel like I got way better sleep than I should have, never had heartburn, never got swollen feet...nothin'.

I did have some CRAZY dreams though. Most of them about food.

Loved it.