All About Alan

So, when I originally started this blog, Alan and I said we'd do it together. Um, yeah right. I should have known better.  What guy wants to sit down and right about how he is feeling and what is going on his life?? Duh!  So, since all posts have been from me, and in great part, about me, I figured I'd do a quick catch-up on my handsome hubby.

Most of our family knows (at least I think) but Alan started a new job on December 1st.  It was, and still is, exciting and nervous for both of us.  The entire time we've been together we've worked for the same company, in the same department.  Never more than 1 minute away from each other.  We both love it here are Visa.  However, about 6 months ago we found out that the team Alan was working on was going to be going away.  They were going to outsource that portion of the work.  While sad, Alan was able to secure a position within another team in our same department that he would start once his current job completed. So, we were ok.  Then during the process of Alan's team transitioning items over to a new company Alan was approached for this new opportunity.  This new company wanted to talk to him about maybe making a move with them.  After 1-2 interviews he was offered the job.  It was a hard decision for us to make.  Visa is great to work for and we have both loved our jobs here.  Alan was paid well and fairly and enjoyed his work.  But this new job would provide new growth opportunities and give him a challenge he had been missing.  So, after some salary negotiations, he accepted the new job offer.  He accepted the job as Operations Manager for a company in Draper. 

So, last week was his first week there.  The first day, he was a bit overwhelmed.  As most are on their first day of a new job.  The second day though, he was a rockstar, as I expected. :)  He is so incredibly smart and motivated, there is no possible way he wouldn't do amazingly well at this new job and responsibility.  I am so excited for him in this new job and what it will bring him.  I just hope I can figure out how to be at work without him now. :)  By end of day on Friday, I was missing him soooo much! I think I took for granted being able to see or chat with my hubby any time of the day.  By Friday night I just wanted him to hold me and be close to him.  Let's hope I cope with this week better, lol! :)

So besides my super smart man getting this new job, he is also kicking butt in school. I am so proud of him for making the step to go back to try to help better our family life down the road.  He's just about to finish up his first semester and has loved it so far.  He is definitely an overachiever, and he won't allow himself to not get an A on something.  He studies and works so hard, making sure he understands what he needs to and also spends time studying with his brother too.  He has been so very busy the last few months and deserves so much more than I can give him sometimes.  He goes to work before 7:00 AM, leaves 2 days a week to go to school, then is at school until 8:00. His non-school days he is either working late or doing homework. Plus he adjusted fantastically to the news of our baby on the way on top of all that other stuff. I have decided that if our little man turns into his daddy exactly, it would be one terrific thing. :)  What a great husband he is, my best friend, and I know he will make an amazing daddy.  He's one of those things I can think about at any time and it just makes me smile and happy :)

Pregnancy Catch-Up...Week 18!

To update on my pregnancy....all is going well!  I'm 18 weeks as of this last Sunday and we saw the doctor just a few days before that.  He said baby looks good and everything looks ok so far. The morning sickness is finally fading too! Wahoo!!!! :)  At about 16 weeks it finally felt under control.  I will still throw up occasionally, but it's not an every day occurrence now, which I couldn't be more grateful for.  Still not feeling baby move consistently, but pretty sure I felt it twice, both times while sitting in a movie theater.  It was a repetitive tapping, almost.  Idk how else to describe it.  Fairly confident it wasn't anything to do with stomach digestion, but I guess I don't really know for sure since the movement isn't consistent. The doctor said usually around 18-20 weeks is when I'd be feeling the movement, so hopefully it comes any time now. :)

The main reason for our check-up at 17 1/2 weeks was to check my cervix.  Since I had to have a procedure to have the lining of it scraped off a few years back, the doctor wanted to be sure it was still thick enough to support a pregnancy.  Good news is he said anything over 2 1/2 centimeters was good and normal, and mine was 3 1/2. Huge relief there :)  And as a bonus at this appointment we got to find out gender as well.  Since everyone here reads my FB as well, we all know it's a boy!!  I honestly think Alan was so excited in the doctor's office he almost started doing cartwheels. :)  He wanted a boy sooooo bad and couldn't have been happier!  Me on the other hand.....well....if I'm being honest, I was sad.  I held it together and smiled for the rest of the appointment, but I was sad.  I had wanted a girl as badly as Alan had wanted a boy.  After we left the appointment and got back to work, I sat at my desk and cried.  Pathetic? Maybe.  But it's true.  I cried for probably 30 minutes before I pulled myself back together. I am NOT sad we're having a baby, and I am not sad it is a boy, I was just sad at missing out on the girly things.....like ribbons, bows, tutu's, pink, purple, leggings, boots.  I chatted to my friend Jessica about it, and Alan and I talked over IM quite a bit that day.  By the afternoon I told Alan we would go shopping after work to find some cute boy clothes to put a smile on my face.  Then, I made it through the rest of the day.

After work that day we went to Babies R Us.  We looked through the clothes, and while it made me sad to see all the cute girl clothes, we did find some cute boy clothes too. We each picked out our favorite outfit to get, and then we found one pair of shoes too. We decided on the way home to buy 2 blue balloons and one pink balloon to use to announce to my family.  So we stopped and got those and when we got home I tied each balloon to Alan's, mine, and the baby's shoes.  Then I snapped a pic w/my phone and sent the text off to my family.  It was super fun to get the phone calls and texts back and to hear the excitement from everyone.  I enjoyed the moment, but was definitely still trying to adjust to the news myself. haha. :)

The next day was Thanksgiving, and the following day we were having dinner w/Alan's family.  At his family dinner just before it was time to eat, Alan put the picture of the balloons and shoes up on our tv screen.  It took a minute for all to catch on, but once they did, they were so excited too!  This is the first boy in their family that will carry on the Hubbs name; his other nephews belong to his sisters with different last names.

So, we're having a boy. :)  I am now happy and excited about this, but also crazy nervous.  What do I do with a boy??????  I don't know how to play cars and trucks, or army guys, or guns, or whatever else boys do!  I pray our little man likes sports, cause that I can understand and know what to do :)  We've also purchased our crib, a stroller/carseat combo, as well as our baby swing.  Tonight we go to pick up all but the crib, and hopefully the crib will be available for us by Saturday.  It's so fun finally buying some items for our little one!

My belly is also getting bigger, that's for sure.  Although the belly is bigger, my weight didn't change much at all between the last appointment (13 weeks) and this appt; only 2 lbs! Wahoo!  The first 5 weeks I gained quite a bit though, at 8 lbs.  So in total, by week 18, I've gained 10 lbs.  I know I'm a bigger girl, so I kinda expected I would gain more than others would, so I'm happy with 10 lbs in the first trimester.  We'll have to see how the next few weeks go :)

So to recap, my belly is bigger with our little man! Morning sickness is pretty much gone, but I'm still waiting to feel the little guy move around consistently. We're starting to purchase the bigger/more expensive items, and I'm working on doing our registry too.  All is well with me, baby, and of course Alan.  We can't wait for the next steps in this journey!

Family Traditions

I've always thought about family traditions for as long as I can remember. There are some I love, and others not as much.  I've also always thought about how I'd want to do things with my own family one day.  Well, that day is almost upon us :)  I've seen a few ideas on FB over the last few months as well that I've really loved, and I wonder how I'll remember them when the time comes.  So I've decided to make mention of them here, and then at least I've written them down somewhere :)

The first idea I saw earlier this year was for Easter.  I think the post on FB called them Jesus baskets.  And I thought, what a great idea!  Too many things are turned so worldly now-a-days, all about how much stuff you get, who gets the most expensive items, etc. How do we teach our kids (and really all those around us) that there is so much more to a holiday meaning than toys and candy?  Well, I think we have to start young. Like, from when they are babies.  This idea for Jesus baskets changed what you would give your child on Easter.  Instead of tons of candy, toys, and it seems now clothes are popular, their Easter basket would be filled with items reminding and teach of Christ. Some ideas could be books, DVD's, wall hangings (pictures of Christ, etc), and other items that would help to teach and remind your child depending on their age.  Now, I won't want my kids to miss out on Easter traditions that I loved growing up, like searching everywhere for where the Easter bunny hid our baskets.  I'll still want to do that.  I just think the items inside the basket will differ a bit.

Birthdays. Another tradition I think I want to change with my own kids.  I got this idea years ago from a dear family who I lived next to.  Birthdays for me growing up meant the entire family getting together (aunts, grandparents, etc) and each family would usually give the birthday person a present.  It was always a huge deal, and quite fun.  This tradition still remains in my family even to this day, but recently we've had changes because our family is growing so much.  Now we still get together once a month, but we only give presents to those under the age of 18. For the rest of us it is just family time.  And I think that works great.  For Alan's family, I'm not quite sure how it was growing up for him.  But I know today nobody in their family gives birthday gifts.  Unless it's to the younger kids.  When it's someone's birthday, they will sometimes get together for a family dinner, but that's about it.  For our kids, I don't want birthday's to be all about how many presents they get; in fact, I think that spoils them. The idea I got from my neighbors was one present on their birthday and that was that.  And ya know what?  The kids were completely happy with that, because that is what they always knew!  They didn't need 10 presents to make it a good day, they were happy with just one. I'd love to start this tradition with my kids.  On their birthday they get one gift from mom and dad, and that's that.  I don't want to have a huge party where people feel expected to bring gifts.  That can be hard financially. I think on the day of their birthday I'll have cake and ice cream available that evening around 7:00 and if family members want to stop by, they can.  To visit, say happy birthday, have some cake, and that's all.   One present and family time should be more than sufficient if that's all they know and expect.  (Note: I haven't talked to Alan about this, we'll see if he agrees! lol)

And my last idea for family traditions for today is about Christmas.  This one is a hard one.  Christmas is a big time for family.  There are Christmas traditions that haven't changed in a long time for my family, but at some point they will have to.  Right now with my family we get together on Christmas Eve for games, Just Dance, and lots of treats.  Then Christmas morning we get together for breakfast.  But when I have our little baby, I want to do my own traditions.  Yes, we will still have family time, but some time needs to be just our little family, and our own traditions.  I haven't decided how to make those changes yet, but I know I will.  Also, growing up we always got to open a present on Christmas Eve; it was always pajamas.   It was nice and fun.  I think I want to continue the tradition of a present on Christmas Eve, but maybe something to remember the religious aspect of the holiday.  Use that time to remember the meaning, and then allow Christmas day to be filled with the toys, etc.

Anyway, just a few thoughts.  I guess after the first year or two of having our own little baby we'll figure out what works best for us and start to establish our own traditions and memories :)

Pregnancy Week 10

Week 10

Ok, so it’s really week 11 as I get to updating for week 10, but that’s ok.  Last week was a busy one!  We chose then to let all our family and friends know of our exciting news.  It didn’t work out quite as well as we had planned, and we had to make some last minute adjustments, but everyone found out in the end.

Thursday night (a few days before I was officially 10 weeks) we ended up telling my brother Greg and his fiancé Andrea.  They were going to be unable to make it to the family event Friday night, so we told them then.  We told them by showing them the “early birthday present” we were giving my dad the next night.  When they caught on, they were stunned and so happy for us!  It was such a wonderful and truly happy moment for us, they were so happy for us.   The next night on Friday, we had told my other two brothers that I had an early birthday present for dad and wanted them to be there when I gave it to him too.  So Friday night Zac, CJ, Trevor, me, and Alan all showed up at dad’s house. He had no idea why. Haha.  Then I told him I had an early present for him and went out to the car to get it.  I came back in and handed it to him.  It was a wall hanging that said “Grandkids make life grand” with small clothes pins attached to the bottom for pictures to be held with.  I had included pictures of all his grandkids, with the last picture being our ultrasound pic that said “Baby Hubbs – May 2015”.  It didn’t take him long at all to catch on!!!  He jumped out of his chair yelling “Really?!” and hugging me as he continue to celebrate, yelling things like “Wahoo!”.   He was so excited, it was awesome.  My brothers had all figured it out by this time too, and came to hug both me and Alan and tell us congrats.  Alan and I discussed it later, and by the reactions of one brother, we think they may be trying to get prego too, and I think the news was somewhat harder to hear.  We think, anyway. 

The next night on Saturday we told Alan’s brother and sister.  Shana ended up coming over to our house early for our game night (set up so we could tell them), and walked upstairs to surprise Alan.  Well, I hadn’t expected people upstairs, and the ultrasound was lying out.  She saw it, and by the time I made it home, she already knew.  She was also very excited and it was fun to talk to her about it all night.  Jon ended up being much later than expected to game night, but when he got there, we had Alan wearing his shirt that said “This guy is going to be a daddy”.  Jon only took a few minutes to read the shirt, and then yelled at Alan for lying to him the previous week. Lol!  Jon had asked Alan on their way to school one day, but Alan lied as we weren’t quite ready to tell people yet.  He was also very happy for us. We then had our nieces Aubrey and Brinlee call their mom (Liz) at work to tell her.  We put Liz on speaker phone and Aubrey said to her “Guess what mom?  I’m going to have a baby cousin!”  It was awesome.  Liz was so excited for us.  She came over later that night after work and gave us big hugs.

The next day was Sunday, the day I was officially 10 weeks.  We called Alan’s parents as we were driving up to Salt Lake for my family dinner.  We texted them a picture of Alan wearing his shirt, and asked them to check their texts.  Alan’s dad saw the text, but couldn’t read the shirt without his glasses on, so he asked Janet to read it for him.  So we got to hear her read it out loud and hear their reaction as it was happening. It was awesome.   We then got to chat with them for a little bit as we drove, and his sister Susan and her family also heard the news.  They were full of questions and very supportive!  As soon as we ended that call we called Alan’s sister Cathy.  We just went ahead and told her on the phone, and she too was very excited.  She has read my blog where I’ve shared my feelings on wanting to be a mom, and us trying, so she truly felt how excited we were for this.  She was sincerely happy for us at this time.  We hung up with her and headed in to my family dinner.

We had Alan wearing his shirt again, but a jacket on over it.  We walked in, chatted, and sat down to play games along with everyone else, who was already there.  They were just about to start charades, so it was perfect when they told Alan to go first.  He said he had to “go get a prop” and walked in to the other room.  Really, he was just taking his jacket off.  He walked back in, and my cousin Alyssa immediately read his shirt out loud, not really sure what she was reading.  Everyone then looked at him, read his shirt, and started yelling things like “What?! Really?!”  I was then rushed by family members yelling, excited, and wanting to hug us! It was awesome!  My Aunt Jenny was soooo happy, as I knew she would be.  It was so much fun to tell our families in the way we did.  After we had left dinner, we had 2 family members left to tell.  We attempted to call my Aunt Marva who couldn’t make dinner, but got voicemail.  So we called Alan’s other brother Rob.  We got him and his wife Ami on the phone and told them both at the same time.   They too were truly happy for us and this amazing moment in our lives.  We chatted for a bit with them and then hung up.   By the time we got home we had Aunt Marva on the phone, and I got to tell her.  She cried and was so happy for me.  Aunt Marva and Aunt Jenny are two of the few people who know how long I’ve wanted a baby and knew how truly exciting it was for us.

So there we go….all the family told, and all very excited for us.  The rest of week 10 consisted of posting our news on FaceBook.  Me still feeling sick and starting to throw up again, and beginning to feel a bit dizzy at times.  We also continue to be SUPER behind with housework like dishes, cleaning bathrooms, etc.   I managed to make another home-made meal thanks to a new, easy enchilada recipe from my friend.  And Alan, seeing how behind we were with housework, came up with an idea to pay our sister-in-law Liz to come help clean a few times a week.  She currently goes and helps Ami with a few things a week, and who doesn’t need extra money, right?  So Alan and Jon talked and worked it out, and Liz agreed.  Then, Liz and I talked and actually worked it all out afterwards. Lol!  At first I said no to the help, as it made me feel lazy and like I wasn’t doing what I should.  But let’s be honest, I’m sick, and exhausted right now.  Even making dinner is an accomplishment for me.  So we settled on her coming twice a week right now to help with dishes, sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, and cleaning bathrooms.  She came one time this week, and it was amazing.   Week 10 held much excitement for us!

Pregnancy Week 9

Week 9

This week began much better than last!  The medicine for nausea the doctor gave me is definitely helping.  My stomach still feels ‘uneasy’ all the time, but at least I’m not wanting to throw up all day long.  And seriously…..the burping. Have I mentioned this unflattering new occurrence yet?  Well if I haven’t, it started from about day 1.  I honestly have to burp all the time.  I mean All. The. Time.  I was never like this before, and it’s irritating!  My hope is that this too shall pass after the first trimester.

I finally made a home cooked dinner this week again too.  Starting at about week 6 I just got so sick I couldn’t stomach the thought of standing at a stove with food. So we’ve got about 3 weeks of eating out or microwave cooked meals.  But yesterday Alan was craving spaghetti, and given how amazing he has been helping out with cleaning and laundry with me not feeling well, I did my best to satisfy.  I managed to get the meal made, and it tasted pretty good too.

Alan.  Let’s talk about this wonderful man of mine.  He has been so amazing.  Once he understood how miserable I was feeling every day, he really stepped up.  And let me tell you, it means a lot.  He is crazy busy with work right now, and has school on top of that. When he first started school I was still feeling ok, and had no issues doing the dishes, cleaning, laundry, etc by myself.  But again, come week 6, I was just down and out.  This last week he has helped out so much at the house it has made a huge difference.  And he’s patient with my food aversions/cravings, crazy burping, and all the other weird side effects that come along with your first trimester.  I got me a good one folks. 

And finally, this week we prepare to tell our families we are expecting.  We have fun little ways we plan to tell people and Saturday night will be our first announcement.  We plan by the end of the day on Sunday to have told our immediate families, and then next week we can figure out telling our friends, etc.  Planning all of these announcements is definitely fun, but it scares me at the same time.  I’ll be 10 weeks by the time we tell people, but there are still so many things that could go wrong after then.  I worry about miscarriages, and it seems so many people I know lately are having stillborn babies, it scares me.  I just hope and pray all turns out well and this little one inside of me stays safe and healthy up to delivery day.