Baby Avance

Today was amazing. We finally got to "meet" our little baby. We are stoked! It has been a long time coming. I have really been struggling with being pregnant... I'm not good at gaining weight and it has made me seriously bitchy! BUT today was awesome! We got to see little baby's face and feet and hands. I am proud to say "All 10 fingers and all 10 toes!" It is very exciting for us. We have a name picked out. We are ready for the baby!! I love this baby... more than anything... well maybe not Kyle :) It really does put everything in perspective. We are excited really meet our new addition!

This is the baby's face. It is yawning.

And all 5 toes!

I'll post more pictures later. We are stoked!

Why I love Jay so much...

Jay has to have surgery... and this was the email Kyle and I got from him today. If you don't know him, this email makes it pretty apparent why I love him so much and why his spirit and energy is basically contagious. I'm not turning my blog into "What is Elder LaPratt doing on his mission" but this was so touching for me... happy reading!
Hey Sis,So I get to have surgery on Monday, its gonna be at like 6:30 in the morning. The doctor says I need to take it way easy for a week. And then I cant lift anything over 20 pounds for 4 weeks. So basically I get to chill on members couches for like a week it will way crazy and way boring but he sad he can only go in once to do the orthoscopic way after that he will have to cut me open clean, so Im gonna do everything he says. The surgery sounds pretty intense, and Im not allowed to be awake for it, dang. But hes doing it for free and my stake president owns a surgery center, so I think the church, just has to pay for the anesthesiologist. (SP) major. But yeah Im pretty nervous I dont like going under but just in case I go under and never wake back up I want you to know two things, one I love you guys hardcore and Ill see you in the spirit world. I like to think about Dane Cooks joke, where hes like your family will be up there and will be like "Youre dead sucker, nah float over here and give me a hug." And 2nd, I want me tombston to say "As youre walking away, your foot steps get louder." so yeah in the slight case I do die, dont let mom and dad write anything gay on my stone, like beloved son, or he went too early. I was thinking "I wanted to know why life was so hard...So I decided to go ask God." I thought that would be a way good one. But thats not gonna happen...But just in case. Well thats about all I got I probably wont write next week cause Ill be stoned out of my mind but we will just see I guess.

Update... but no pictures...

Kyle is supposed to get on here... but he is SO busy. I actually feel really bad for him at times. He is working 2 jobs (which I will never complain about, because it is really helping us out) and he has his EMT class which takes up a huge amount of time. He gets really awesome grades in that class, proves what a smarty pants I married! I love how dedicated he is to our family.
BUT some new stuff has been going on, so I'm not waiting for him, he will get around to it when he can :) Kyle's brother and his wife had a little boy yesterday... we now have two nephews named Parker. It apparently is a popular name this year! I don't even know if Kyle has gone to meet him yet... I haven't done anything but school work today. And I spend so little time with Kyle now (due to work and school) I haven't talked to him yet. We only have time to talk about the basics and that is all! It's only one semester though, we will get through. Congrats to Jimmy and Brigett and little Cortney.
We saw our dr last week and he is super excited for us. Our baby is doing really well. I had an emotional breakdown the day before the appointment. I haven't been sick in a little over 2 weeks, I throw up on a random ocassion, but nothing like before (thank goodness) and I haven't gained any weight this month. I was thoroughly convinced that we had lost the baby. My eating habits have been really good lately, but I just had a really bad feeling. Kyle came home from class to me in tears because I was so depressed. He just picked me up and let me cry in his arms for about 30 minutes and then he gave me a blessing. What an amazing husband I have! I am so grateful for the power that he holds. I felt calm and we got to listen to the heartbeat the next day. The dr said it is perfect. Nothing to be worried about. We set a date for the ultra sound and will be finding out the sex on September 30. I can't believe it is coming up so soon. When we first found out we were pregnant, Kyle only wanted a boy and now he is leaning for a girl... such a flip flopper if you ask me! We just want a healthy baby. And Kyle's sister is also pregnant. We found out a few weeks ago... she is due at the end of March! Exciting! Congrats to Jill and Rob!
I met with my academic advisor today. She informed me that I am perfectly on track to graduate in May (finally) and... I am on the dean's list. It's really not that big of a deal, but I was so excited! All my hard work is finally paying off! Kyle and I can't wait for me to graduate so we can move! We want to move out of Cedar... fast! Big city... here we come... in 8 months!!!
And our camera broke! I'm not sure what even happened! That piece of junk! It was actually a really nice camera and I took decent care of it. I think I left it out in the car a few too many times and it did get bounced around alot... why are they not more durable. I can't post any new pictures until we get a new one... but we will be getting a new one soon. We have to! With the baby coming and all!
My mom and dad took Kyle and me up to Salt Lake for a day last weekend. Mom and I went to a scrapbooking convention (which was a blast) and kyle and my dad went and looked at 4 wheelers and motorcycles. Kyle was eyeballing some of the motorcycles, which I am perfectly ok with once we get enough money. I love street bikes! Anyways, my mom and I were keeping a look out for cute baby things at this convention. And we found some! Unfortunately, we don't know the sex of the baby yet, so I was hesitant to buy anything... but my mom is so cute... her response "Buy one of each" so we did :) It was a great day with my parents.
I think that is all for now... I can't remember anything else. I will post some pictures once I get a working camera!

How is all began... by Shannon

I have been sitting at work all night and I realized it is already September! Holy Crap! Kyle and I met almost a year ago... and what an amazing year! So I was thinking about that and about the first time we met and I thought "No one even knows how we met... I think I'll write it down so when my kiddies read this after they put me in a home for the mentally insane... they will know at least once in my life that I was normal" :) So here it goes...
I was starting my junior year at SUU... living in small town Cedar City (or Cedar Shitty as I call it) and I moved into an apartment where I didn't know any of my roommates and there is always that awkward week, you know... when no one wants to come out of their room for fear of small talk? So anyways... I had been dating a guy down in Vegas all summer who was also attending SUU. He was about 7 years older than me (this whole story is actually rather interesting... maybe I'll blog about that one day) So anyways, we were still dating when school started but I always knew there was something about him that was off. Anyways, I had a friend who lived in St George, his name was Mike. I always considered Mike a friend, I don't know if he ever expected more or not, and it's irrelevant, but he invited me to go 4 wheeling with his family over albor day weekend. This "boyfriend" of mine had left for the weekend and it's not like I was out there socializing with my roommates so I went. It was actually a lot of fun. I met most of his family (which becomes interesting later) and had a good time.
So the next week, I probably hung out with "boyfriend" maybe once and Mike called me on Saturday and asked what I was doing. I wasn't doing anything, it was Saturday and I was not interested in doing homework on a Saturday night unless it was a last resort. But my roommate that I shared a bathroom with had found out that she didn't make the softball team and was super bummed out about it. If I went down to St George to hang out with Mike, she was going to be all alone... so he suggested that we double date (I thought of it as more of a hanging out than a date... I'm a pretty loyal girlfriend, at least at that point). He said he had a friend and we could all do something together. It seriously took forever for me to talk my roommate into going. And even longer to pick out something for her to wear. So we drive down to St George and meet at Mike's house. Mike was outside waiting to make sure I didn't get lost but this "mystery friend" was still in the house... but there was a really nice truck outside that I knew didn't belong to Mike. So we walk in the house and there is a really cute guy sitting on the floor... now at this point, I had met most of Mike's family, and this guy didn't look like them, so this was the "mystery friend" After saying hi to Mike's parents, this guy got up and came over and introduced himself... the second thing I remember about him, after him being really cute was he had the deepest voice and the darkest weird tan! So we decided where we would go and all packed into Kyle's truck and off we went. I'm not a big fan of awkward dead silence, and although I thought he was really cute, I was still dating "boyfriend" so what did I care if I made myself look like an idiot by creating conversation. So there I sat, asking Kyle and my roommate questions to make sure they would actually speak... they are both pretty shy people!
We get to Dave's Famous BBQ and are seated and I keep up with the small talk... realizing more and more that I really like Kyle. I found out how many brothers and sisters he has (and that he is a twin... the third twin I have dated... I have a thing for half of a set I guess) and what he liked to do for fun and what he did for work. I made a total fool out of myself at the restuarant, but who cares, it gave all of us something to laugh about and who cares if we were laughing at me!
After dinner we decided to go see a movie. On the way to the theater Kyle let me play with his "newer than mine" ipod... and I noticed he had Dane Cook on there. I immediately thought we should listen to it and Kyle and I quoted most of it without even turning it on. Well my roommate had never heard it, so Mike and I left to go get tickets and to let Kyle and my roommate get a little alone time. So we all finally get into the movie and I was sitting on the far side, then Mike was next to me and my roommate was next to Mike and then Kyle was on the end... I was so irritated. I wanted to sit by Kyle!!! But he was not my "date" and I wasn't trying to steal his attention (ok that's a total lie... I was but it would have been rude to make it obvious!) All through the movie I would find little reasons to peak over in their direction to see if they were holding hands or if he had his arm around her or anything... and luckily for me... they never were! The movie ended and we decided it was getting late and we still had to drive back to Cedar, so the guys took us back to our car and we left. I texted Mike on the way home and asked him what Kyle thought... his answers were so lame I figured that's just how guys talked, so I cleverly decided I should get Kyle's number and I would talk to him myself about it (or so everyone thought that's what I would be doing). So that was the first night that we met... the story only gets better from here... the next day is a good story too! But Kyle promised me he would write up his side so we can see who exaggerates more :) So I'll finish after Kyle has...

To be continued...