Moving on up!

I had my monthly checkup today and my doctor moved my due date up from the 27th to the 21st! So i am officially in my 3rd trimester! Yay!

In the last few weeks I have discovered 'nesting'. And I LOVE it! My house is almost always spotless(my husband probably nic-names me the drill-Sargent under his breath. . its not so much fun for him), and I have been having a blast with projects! I decided to make all the baby bedding. . but i'm not the most experienced sew-er, so thanks goodness for fabulous friends, like Sally, who have held my hand and done a lot of the work! Shes the best. I can't wait to post pictures when everything is all done in a couple weeks.

We are going to be in a one bedroom apartment when baby gets here, so its been really fun transforming 'sections' of our over sized bath and bedroom into baby space. The first project Sally, my mom and I did was to make this shower curtain that has all of colors of the nursery bedding in it! Thats right folks, we Made this! and it turned out wonderful!

The Nursery fabric is much more baby friendly, but the colors all match and it pulls everything together. This week we are anxiously awaiting our puff rocker from Mom and Dads store, and next week we pick up our crib and combo set. SOO excited!

As for the growing little guy inside my not so little tummy(seriously, I looked at this picture and was like HOLY cow, is that really mine?). . If you haven't heard yet, he has a name. Its Kai Christian. Unless he comes out not looking anything like that and then HECK i don't know what we'll do! :) But he is moving like crazy and getting so strong! Its the best thing in the entire world. Seriously. I could sit around and feel/watch him move all day and I bet it would never get old!

28 weeks!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

Baby update! 2 posts in one day!

I love being pregnant! I feel wonderful, and its so fun to experience all the little joys that come along with it. I love my growing belly even more as it gets bigger. I love having the best excuse in the world, to have hands all over it. I love the silly cravings. Most of all I love feeling our little guy move. Yesterday was incredible. . for the first time I felt the baby move on the outside. Very distinct kicks. .for 20 minutes straight. I called my mom and giggled!(case was in a meeting) I CANT wait til he can feel him too!

Rocking the bikini: 17weeks

Just cruisin' along

This past week we got to go on a 7 day Mexican Rivera cruise. We had a blast! My little(big) brother Jeremy andhis friend Danye were with us. Beware: Lots of pictures!

First stop: Mazatlan

The boys had a a blast on the ATVs

...and horse back riding

I love formal night!

I ESPECIALLY love kissing on formal night... Okay ALL the time!

The best looking guys on the ship. . no really!

Last Stop: Cabo San Lucas, where we spent the day at Lovers Beach, hung out with the Seals and went snorkling

And just cause, some pictures of my favorite guy! I dont know what it is about him lately(maybe the extra baby hormones?) but I just think he is so dang hott!! :) By the way he is gonna bless our baby in that suit. Doesn't he just look like a Daddy?

Sex!!!!

Thats right we found out the sex of our baby! :) He has junk as my husband keeps saying. . Our little guy is indeed a BOY! We are soooo excited, but I do have to say not at all surprised. We have felt from the very beginning that he was in fact a little guy. We can't wait to see what he looks like!

15 weeks

Drum roll please. . .

There are so many ways to say this. .but the best is. . .We are PREGNANT!!

Yup, after 3 years of trying, and many hardships along the way . . its very exciting to announce, that the Lord decided it was time to bless us. We are so very grateful!

I will be 13 weeks on Friday. We've had two great ultrasounds and our first little blueberry is doing just great. Although I guess he's not the size of a blueberry anymore, more like a plum. :) Although, from the outside the baby looks HUGE. My tummy is way big! At about 9.5 weeks my tummy literaly popped out. I wish i would have taken pics that early, because i haven't changed too much since then(which makes my belly even more huge-looking at 9.5 weeks.)

I just started to feel good in the last week. Up until then i was really green, but very happy to be so. :) Now im just tired and plagued with heartburn. Casey has just recently decided that this is 'real' and that its ok for him to be really excited. However, if your looking for enthusiasm, at any time of the day, feel free to call or stop by my parents house and have a little chat with the worlds biggest fans: my mom and sisters. :) They are the BEST! All it took in the beginnning with my closest companion(the toilet), was my moms giggles, yes giggles of how much fun it was that i was sick for this very reason. . to lift my spirits! She wants to tell everybody. If i let her she'd stand outside Papaya and annouce to everything that walked by that SHE is going to be a Grandma. Between that and Ashleys constant urge to rub, kiss and talk to my tummy, we couldnt be having more fun.

We'll keep ya posted.

12 weeks

Welcome to Indiana!

We are here!

The last month has been a total whirlwind! We got to Indiana the last day of April, and here it is a month later, and I can't believe it. We LOVE it here, who woulda thought?



I decided that i was going to give selling a shot, and I am having a total blast! I originally decided to sell because I felt that it was just for selfish reasons that i was so hesitant, and I knew if i just tried, our family would be blessed. I sold 2 on my first day and things haven't slowed down since! We are up at 8 am and we usually don't get home til 10 or so. Casey and I have done really well working together, and our office as a whole is doing incredible. SO much fun!




As a company we take a day off every two weeks to avoid burnout, and last sunday we went to the Indy 500. It was soooooo COOL!

Check out how fast they go! We loved it!

I promise it won't be so long til the next time I post! Love you all!

We know..

As many of you know, Casey and I are adopting.

For the past several months, we've had the wonderful blessing of working closely with a great lady in Tahiti, who coordinates a lot of adoptions. At the end of November we were 'matched' with a birth mother(due mid-february), whom we loved immediately. She quickly decided she wanted us to raise her baby. Everything started to fall into place. . this would be her 3rd time placing a baby for adoption, so were were hopeful.

But most of all I have to say we have been blessed. If there was ever any doubt before, we know now that Heavenly Father is mindful of us, loves us, and has a plan in place for us.

So for the past several months we have been preparing physically, financially and emotionally for the birth of a little boy.

This last week we learned, this little guy is no longer ours to prepare for. The birth mother changed her mind.

I want all of you who love us to know, how grateful we are. Grateful that we know our Father in Heaven. Grateful that He is carrying us through this hard time. Grateful to know that His will is the only will we want to be apart of. Grateful for the amazing amounts of people who have been praying for us. Mostly grateful to know that its all going to work out, we will have the blessings of parenthood in our lives. When the time comes we will be better because of this. Of that we are sure.

Take a minute if you would to view the last minute of this video. The whole thing is wonderful, but particularly from 5:45 on.
http://www.youtube.com/swf/l.swf?video_id=snAjZ8mfoYw&rel=1&eurl=&iurl=http

Im the Biggest LOSER!

We had the funnest Enrichement tonight! Bette-Sue from last seasons Biggest Loser, was the speaker. .For those of you who don't know who she is. . YOU are totally missing out! This show is my absolutle favorite. It inspires me. Cause if these people can work out for 8+ plus hours a day, than there is NO reason why I can't put in my half hour. But back to my night, Bette-Sue was one half of the pink team, and her other half, her daughter Ali, just so happened to BE the Biggest Loser! Amazing!

Bette-Sue was LOL funny, and down to earth at the exact same time. I could have watched/listened to her for another 24 hours straight. She shared her very personal experience and journey, and weaved the Gospel in at every turn. She was truly inspiring.

Let me introduce Tina. Love her. We met at a community Biggest Loser challange, which she won. . speaking of inspirations. I love women like her that work full time as moms and still take care of number one. I'll say it again: love her.

Baby Shower

So many of you may not know this, but we're having a baby!!! Yup, but unlike most of you parents -to be, we aren't going about it the most popular way. :) We are being blessed by the miracle of adoption!(I'll expand more on a later post).

This week three amazing girls from my ward threw us a shower. We played a really fun game, at lots of junkfood, and I was giddy with delight that I am here, in this place in my life, where we could celebrate our baby to be. Thanks to everyone who helped make it such a blast!

We handed out this poem, with chocolate hearts as a party favor:

"Not flesh of my flesh, nor bone of my bone,

But still miraculously my own.

Never forget for a single minute,

You didn't grow under my heart-but in it."

Love it.

Story of My Life right now. .

Can you even tell that my husband is under there. . somewhere? He is working so many hours right now, that as SOON as he gets home, if he sits down, he is asleep. I think this picture was taken at 830 at night. I could have turned music on and danced around naked. . and he never would have known. Well, maybe. Poor guy. Sure glad he's my guy though.

Now or NEVER

I just can't resist the blogging world any longer. I've put it off because i thinks its a wee bit LAME to have a blog, when you dont have babies to show off. . but since we are planning on changing that soon, HERE WE COME! I hope your ready, cause its definatly a roller-coaster with us Stikas. See ya soon.