Jaren's Photo Shoot

I have a pretty stud-ly husband! Here are a few pics we took for his graduation announcement on campus one evening. He's such a good, patient model ;) He hates the "poop" trees on campus. That's what his stinky face is for. Guess who we saw? We've always loved running into these ducks on campus, and we always stop to take pics of them. Just one more thing we'll miss! Jaren always thinks they should be named Eugene. Thanks to Holly for designing the announcement for us! We will miss BYU so much, but are excited to graduate! 

HALFWAY!!

On April 17th I was exactly 20 weeks! Halfway. Wow! 

These pics were taken a few days before, and RIGHT before we found out the gender. BAM!! It's a bump! But I just ate 3 of Janna's delicious homemade huckleberry muffins... soo... baby or food baby? We may never know. Love you, Baby Nelson! You weren't kicking just yet, but the bump is evidence that you're there :) 

It's a...

Janna and Jeni threw us a GENDER REVEAL party, and it was the MOST FUN ever!

We kinda decided last minute to do it, and I'm so glad we did!

Our 19.5 week ultrasound was April 12th at 3:30 PM. The doc looked me over, measured my growing belly, and let us hear the heartbeat. 153 BPM!! I love hearing that swooshing sound. 

Then we went to see the ultrasound technician. We told her RIGHT away that we didn't want to know the gender, but that we wanted her to write it down and seal it in an envelope so we could open it with our friends and family later. 

CRAZY, right!? The suspense of waiting until 5:30 that night almost killed me!

At home, while cleaning, getting ready for guests to arrive at the party, and eating some french fries, I heard a knock at the door. TO MY UTTER SURPRISE it was my mom, my three sisters, and my two nieces screaming in my face! And so I screamed back! And almost fell to the floor. Then I cried!!! I couldn't believe that they traveled 4 hours to come see if our baby was a boy or girl! It meant the world to me to have them here along with Jaren's parents AND Jaren's sister, Jeni, and her family! Plus, our great friends Tina, Jon, and their little boy Max, plus our BFF neighbors Holly and Koltyn came too!!

I felt like I had won the lottery. There is NO doubt that this babe will be SO. DANG. loved!!!

The plan was to dress up one pup in pink (Fritz. He got the raw end of the deal) and to dress the other in blue (Odie) for a few pictures. Then to REVEAL the gender by letting Holly (our awesome neighbor) take the pups and the envelope in the back room, dress both of them in the correct color, and send them out! They looked SOO adorable in the little party hats Janna made for them. Aren't those to die for?? So lucky I have her as a mother-in-law. And look at those beautiful strawberries! Jeni slaved away on those and I am SOO impressed with how good they looked and tasted. Perfection!

 Here we are ANXIOUSLY waiting for those pups to come trotting out! My heart was beating so fast. And the verdict is...Boy boy boy boy boy BOY!!! I knew it all along. Even from the moment I found out I was pregnant, I had a feeling that it was a handsome, little man. I've had tons of dreams about how CUTE he is!! We cannot wait to meet our little guy. Thank you SOOO much for everyone who sacrificed so much to be there for us! Best party I've ever been to. Much more exciting to have everyone there that you love!!!

 

Two Pink Lines

We took these the day I told Jaren that he was going to be a DAD! January 2, 2014. HAPPINESS!

Guess WHAT!?

We've got Big, BIG, BIG, BIG news! Actually it's about the size of a Tangerine. But SO big to us!!! We're... PREGNANT!  And so sick. But that's okay, cuz I asked for it! Seriously. We've been waiting and waiting for this little nugget. We have just been PRAYING and praying to know the right time to begin our family, and one day - it just felt right. Now, I'm almost 14 weeks and officially in my second trimester! I just feel that empty stomach feeling all the time... almost like I'm starving, but don't want to eat a single thing. I never knew how good generic brand honey-nut cheerios could taste. It's one of the only things that has been the least bit appetizing the past few weeks. That, and string cheese and fruit roll-ups! I've lost about 10 lbs, but the doc has me on an RX so hopefully things will start lookin up! We told my family while visiting Idaho on Valentine's Weekend, then told Janna and Jeff on the way back to Provo! They were all really excited and SUPER HAPPY! For both reveals, we wrapped up the cutest BYU onsie ever and let Jaren open it as his 'birthday' present. They had NO idea - worked like a charm :) Then, we told our friends in Provo by throwing Jaren a big 'birthday party.' He opened his gift (yes, we wrapped it 3 times!) and surprised all our friends and neighbors. BUT... birthday cake first :)  So sad we didn't get pics of our families being surprised! Probably because I was crying too much. It got easier the 3rd time around :) We are super excited. Obviously! We just wanna have a party!! ;) This ends our "Just Us" chapter, but we couldn't be more excited for the next part of our lives! It's what we've waited for for so long. We cannot WAIT until September!!!

Bragging rights.

Jaren's the best. Last night, he had awesome 14th row tickets to the Jazz game and guess who he took!? ME! That's true love! And I made sure to put away my phone (after the selfie) and actually enjoyed the game.

We had so much fun! We always laugh and joke and smile when we're together, but last night I especially enjoyed his oh so fun personality. Walking hand in hand from the arena to our car, I couldn't help but think how lucky I was! Maybe it's the Valentines-ness of the week talking.. But I REALLY REALLY like this guy! Don't know what I ever did without him. All last week, he was especially wonderful. He let me go with him to J-Dawgs looking like a homeless person.
He even finished my last bite for me (which is always the gross-est). AND he puts up with my autocorrect and sassy-ness like in our texting convos...
 AND last Saturday when I really wanted to try this new donut truck in Springville, he totally delivered. BUT then he made delicious bad boy cinnamon rolls Sunday night.
And then he was just looking so darn sharp for CAREER FAIR DAY at BYU. DAAANNNGG!! So yeah. Jaren's the best. That's all.