November!

This year's fall has been so wonderful! The weather stayed nice for much longer than normal which meant a lot of walks for John and I. The early part of the month was spent at home playing. Lots of pillow forts and playing in the kitchen, two of John's favorite things. :) Porter's birthday is also in November! He invited us to a party at a fun center that had all these bounce houses. John thought it was great fun!

9 Months!

~John at Nine Months~

John is a super roller! He has zero interest in learning how to crawl. Every once in awhile he will do a little army crawl scoot thing. But only if there is something he really wants that is out of his reach. He is sitting up much better. But he doesn't know how to go from sitting to rolling so he usually ends up just falling over. So I end up putting a pillow behind him when he is sitting so he doesn't hit his head on the hard floor.
He likes to babble and has developed a taste for solid foods. His favorite thing is to watch others. No matter where we go he is always interested in the people around us. Which is always to the delight of those who catch his eye. He sure knows how to turn on the charm and smiles at everyone. I get several comments whenever we are out about how cute he is and I couldn't agree more!
We had his 9 month check up and he is growing so well! He now weighs 20lbs 10oz and is 28in long! He jumped up from the 4th percentile to the 50th. Switching over to formula was a great decision as you can see in his growth, sleep and overall mood.

New Year, New House!

It is safe to say that 2016 was a pretty great year for us! Not only did we welcome Little John into our family but we bought our first house!!
We have been renter/apartment dwellers since we got married so we were pretty excited to finally get into a house.
We started looking at homes the beginning of November. There were several that we liked but were out of our price range. Over the Thanksgiving weekend a house came up that I knew we had to see. It was priced well and the pictures made it look great. So in between family stuff and Thanksgiving we went and looked at it. After looking at it I knew we had to put an offer on it right away. It had thirteen showings in two days! We got our offer in that same day and found out on Sunday night that ours had been accepted! We closed right before Christmas.
It was crazy fast, but we have now been in the house for almost a month and we love it! It is a three bed, two bath house. From what we gathered from the internet and neighbors, it was bought at auction last March then flipped. So it has all new flooring, new kitchen/appliances, new A/C, new roof and new water heater. It also comes with an unfinished basement so we have room to grow. The house is about a mile away from where we used to live so we get to stay in the same area which we love. In fact, the house is along my 5 mile running loop so I have run by this house many many times before. Haha. It is exciting to finally have a yard, no shared walls and space!

Top 15 of 2015

I can't believe that 2015 is coming to an end and 2016 is already here. This past year has been a crazy and adventurous one! Here are my top 15 moments from 2015.

15. In January, Zac was offered a job in Utah so we packed everything up and moved from Seattle to Salt Lake.

14. Witnessed a miracle. Before we moved, we were able to witness my nephew, Mason, be sealed to my sister, Kristin and Alan and Spencer for time and all eternity.

13. Grandma LeFevre passed away. It was bittersweet. It also provided an opportunity for my whole immediate family to be together for the first time in years.

12. Celebrated my 25th birthday with lots of family around to make it extra special.

11. I hiked the Grand Canyon with my Dad and Lindsey.

10. Started a new job at 1800Contacts as a personal trainer/wellness coach. I absolutely love it!

9. Visited home for the 24th of July and spent a lot of time with family.

8. Successfully grew my first patio garden!


7. We discovered that besides Endometriosis, we were also dealing with male factor infertility which explains a lot.

6. Celebrated 6 wonderful years of marriage!

5. Went to Yellowstone, knocking something off my lifelong bucket list.

4. Ran two half marathons!

3. Went on many great adventures with Zac. Lots of hiking, backpacking and discovering.

2. We decided to give IVF a try. I thought I would die giving myself shots, but I survived.

1. And for the best news of all of 2015...........IT WORKED! Our little miracle is expected early September of 2016. So it is still pretty early which means that we are not out of the woods yet. Thank you for all of your support and prayers. I am completely overwhelmed with happiness and gratitude. I wanted the IVF treatments to work so so bad but was so afraid that I would be disappointed again like I have been so many times over the last four years. I am still a little reserved and having a hard time feeling like it is real. I have spent the last four years guarding myself and my emotions from the painful reality of infertility. Just thinking about the fact that we are really going to have a baby in 2016, is enough to get me misty eyed with pure happiness.

We decided to have the blood test done over Christmas vacation. It took us a while to find an open lab and when we finally had the blood work finished, because of the time difference between Utah and Washington, we had to wait to get the results the next day. Talk about the longest day ever. The next morning Zac and I were just laying in bed half awake when my phone rang. I knew exactly what phone call it was. I jumped out of bed, answered the phone and put it on speaker phone so Zac could hear. Those few moments seemed to go in slow motion. When I heard the IVF nurse say, "Congratulations! You are pregnant!" I completely lost it. There are moments in life that change everything and you will never forget. This was definitely one of those moments. I will never forget how I felt hearing those words for the first time. Such a tender moment. 

Like I said earlier, it is still quite early. So there is still a lot of risk. However, I have decided that because I have let you all in on my IVF journey, I need to let you in on the rest, no matter what happens. 

2015 was a crazy year that brought a lot of change. Here is to an even crazier 2016! 

24th of July Celebration

There are few better times in the year than the 24th of July celebration in St. Johns. No matter how old I get, I will always love going home. Because we now live in Utah, Zac gets the 24th off because it is a state holiday! We decided to go down and see most of my family (we missed you Elise! But at least I get to see you a lot because you are so close.)

When I was little, whenever we had a really wet summer, a small pond would form just up the street from our house and would be filled with pollywogs (aka: tadpoles for all the non-St. Johnians). So of course we had to take Spencer pollywog hunting! I think his mom and aunts and uncles had just as much fun re-living our childhoods. :) 

Next on the list of fun activities was the campfire circle. This was the first time Zac had ever experienced the campfire circle. It wasn't even windy so we could actually eat our food without dirt in it. Marc set up horseshoes and Uncle Bob brought these pretty fun rocket launchers. 

The next morning, Dad, Kristin, Lindsey, Zac and I ran the 10k. Dad and Kristin are really fast, by the way. I almost beat Zac! I was sneaking up on him. Lindsey also ran her first 10K and rocked it! 

Right after the 10K was the Alumni Redskin Girls soccer game. This is always one of the major highlights. My high school soccer coach and the girls I played with were a major part of my life and influenced me for good. This was Coach Lussier's first alumni game officially retired. He will always be coach and I will always be grateful for the time he spent with me on the field teaching how to not only play soccer but to work hard and to always stay positive. 

I only had time for a quick shower then it was off to the parade! Here we are sitting in our usual spot in front of Mom's childhood home. It may be a small parade but it is always entertaining and Michelle always ends up with a ton of candy. 

I also fell in love while I was home... in love with my newest nephew, that is! He is absolutely adorable. He is such a smiley little guy and his scooting is the cutest thing ever!

Now for a few pictures of home.....