Golden Birthday

So my birthday was supposed to be super lame this year because it was on the Sunday of a holiday weekend and Dal is in the middle of crazy boards studying and I mostly feel like crap all of the time. Surprise! It was actually my favorite birthday ever.

Since a couple of my friends were leaving town for the weekend, we celebrated on the strip on the Wednesday before. They spoiled me with presents and we ate ridiculous $14 frozen hot chocolate. Then we went to the forum shops and looked at baby girl clothes since that was right after I found out that I am having a little girl. I have the greatest friends here. They make Dallin's nonstop studying not so lonely and I am just going to pretend that we are not moving in a year.

I told Dallin that the only thing that I wanted for my birthday was to go camping, and camping we went! We convinced the Taylors & the Tuckers to go with us and it was such a perfect night! The weather was beautiful and it was super fun. Cal loves being outside so he was in heaven, except for we were kind of by a little cliff and he was obsessed with running right up to the edge and throwing rocks off. It was kind of scary, but I think that Dallin was a little bit thrilled because Cal is usually a wuss about most things and he kept trying to climb down the rocks. He might just be a Mitchell after all! We decided to bring the pack n' play and put Cal in his own little tent right next to where we were sleeping under the stars and it was a great decision. He slept all night long! We roasted hot dogs & s'mores and Jelissa spoiled me with birthday cupcakes.

 I didn't think that we would do much on my actual birthday since it was a Sunday and I thought that Dal would have to study. I woke up to an extremely happy baby and breakfast in bed. Dallin got me a vegetable chopper and cute skirt that he gave me before church. Cal and I were on our way home from church at noon (Dal doesn't ride home with us because he has to count tithing), and I planned on just laying around and maybe watching a show while he napped. But when I got to my house MY PARENTS WERE THERE! I have never been surprised by anything really before because I am so nosy, but I had no idea and it made me so happy! We hung around for a while so Cal could take a nap, then they took us out to dinner. The little dude was super nice at dinner and I even felt good enough to eat. Win win. We got back to our house, played some games, and watched Calvin obsess over bubbles. He really recognizes my parents now, and calls them 'yaya' and 'papa'. They left around 7 that night... literally drove for 12 hours to have dinner with me on my birthday! It was the best. Dallin took the night off of studying to play cards with me before bed. I had a superb start to 25!

IT'S A GIRL

I have had a rough few weeks as far as pregnancy goes. My new thing is to throw up every couple of hours all night long, so I usually have to take a nap when Cal does because I feel like I don't sleep. This happened with Cal too, so hopefully that ends soon. We have had some cool things happen this week, though, that help me remember that I am having a baby and don't just have 9 months of the 24-hour stomach flu.

About a week ago I felt our little baby kick for the first time. It started happening a little bit more consistently, but I had never been able to feel it on the outside with my hand because the flutters were so light. One night, I casually mentioned to Dal where the baby was in my stomach because I could feel some fluttering. As soon as he put his hand there the baby kicked way hard and he could feel it! It was awesome. It would be several months before he could ever feel it with Cal so that was a happy surprise. 

So last time that I was pregnant I had no idea what the gender was, but this time I was pretty sure that it was a boy. I kind of bonded with a boy in my head, and figured that I wasn't going to have to buy a thing since I already have a boy. I had a doctor's appointment on Wed morning and Dal was unable to get off of work for it. I was pretty sure that this was the appointment that she would be able to tell , so I had her write the gender on a piece of paper and seal it in an envelope so that we could open it together when Dal got home. It was a long day of waiting! Calvin and I made a nice dinner and blue & pink cupcakes. We ate outside and opened the envelope during dinner to reveal that we are having a GIRL! It was actually really fun to find out like that and I kind of want to always do it that way. After we finished Dinner, we gave Cal a cupcake with pink frosting and skyped with all of our family members to share our happy news. I was not at all disappointed, but I don't think that it had really hit me yet. When I went shopping with friends later that night, I kept wandering back to the baby boy section. As the days have passed I have become soooo excited that it is a girl. I think that we will wait a while after this one, so it is so perfect for us to have one of each. Cal still has no idea what is happening, but he loved his pink cupcake!

A Cal + me week & Mother's Day

Dallin has been studying at the school or working all but 1 hour per day that he comes home for dinner ever since we got home from Utah, and will be until June 25th when he takes his Step 2 boards. Since most of my good friends were out of town this week, I got a lot of good time with my buddy. I love him so. 

Also, although I still throw up a lot, I am feeling a little bit human again! Besides my awkward having to sit down in the middle of the Cafe Rio line to avoid passing out on Monday, I have been able to do normal stuff this week. Hurray hurray hurray! I had been feeling bad about Cal having to stay home so much so we took advantage and went to the splash pad, 2 parks, storytime at the library, had a lunch date, went to feed the turtles by our house FOUR times (our favorite), and went to get slurpees. And I fixed dinner every night, paid my car off, and even went (sort of) running one day! Oh man, I am much more of a happy camper when I am not stuck at home. I had so much fun with Cal this week.

Feeding the turtles

Took a picture of dinner because it was my first time making dinner in a month

Library storytime

Out to lunch

Cuddling with Hobbes

We never tire of seeing the turtles, ducks, and fish at the Wetlands park

Splash pad

Cutest sad face when his slurpee was gone

17 weeks

 Yesterday was my 2nd Mother's Day since becoming a mom. We got a call on Wed saying that the 2 of us both had to speak in church and that we would be the only 2 speakers. I am not going to lie, I was not super happy about speaking in church on Mother's day, especially after reading that Mother's Day is the worst day to speak during the whole year because it is a hard day for a lot of people. It ended up being a good experience. Dallin's parents drove down from St. George so they could hear us speak. They came the night before so Dal and I were able to go on a nice date to a movie on Saturday evening. It was awesome to have them there to watch Cal during the meeting while we were speaking. Dallin gave an awesome talk and it made my day start off so lovely. He also took the day off of studying and we just hung out as a family for the rest of the evening. Dal made my favorite for dinner (steak), got me flowers and a massage, and we went to the park. We finished off the night watching Hercules with the little dude and eating brownie batter. Oh, and (since I have TWO siblings currently serving missions) we got to talk to both of our cute little missionaries. They look happy and we are proud of them.

This week was just what I needed with my little 1 year old and I was so grateful this Mother's Day to be his mother.