4th of July

There has always been a tradition in the Mitchell family to watch the Riverdale parade on the 4th of July. Since we live on the road where the parade runs we never have to worry about not getting a seat. We're always guaranteed a seat in the shade. The past 2 years Braden has been in charge of the baby contest so he drives in the parade to give the winners a ride... good excuse to show off his "flippin' bad A" truck. Other than that, there isn't really anyone we know in the parade.

After the parade we went down to Lagoon. We did that last year too. Last year was fun because I got to ride the rides. This year I walked around with my camelback taking pictures of everyone. Here are just a few.

Waiting at the entrance for Drew and Lori.

That's Drew and Lori if you can't tell.

This is my "afraid of heights" face.

Very rarely do you see the Mitchell fam without food!

I was very happy to sit this one out with Becky and watch the 2 babies.

So after our long hot day at Lagoon... 3 hours of which I slept on a blanket in the shade... we were ready for some fireworks. Everyone came to Grandma Mitchell's and we had ice cream sundaes and watched the fireworks going off at Riverdale park. Why they have never tried to watch them from her front yard I will never know. We had perfect seats and we didn't even have to fight the crowds. Chase picked up some fireworks in Wyoming when he went last month. Besides trying to catch Porter's shirt on fire by fire works, it turned out to be a very fun and safe 4th of July.

Relaxing at the cabin

Since Kristen and Patrick decided that they need to move clear across the country in 2 weeks, we wanted to get together before they move. So on Saturday we went up to the Mitchell family cabin... a.k.a "The McGibbon Dream Inn". We stopped at Wal-mart to buy some food and then we were on our way. They brought their 2 adorable girls, Lucy and Hannah. We honestly didn't do a single thing except for eat and sit around and talk. We had some good laughs. Hannah, who is 3, is so funny! She seemed to have a crush on my husband. That's OK, I don't blame her. She followed Chase everywhere he went. When he went outside, she went outside. When he went inside, she went inside. He always had this tiny person behind him saying "Wait for me". He was laying on the hammock and she started tickling his feet. Then she climbed on the hammock and would jump onto Chase. She would take his hat and put it on the table out of reach. At one point she was in the cabin with me and said... "I need to get a cookie and take it to Chase". Needless to say, he now has a new girlfriend! At about 7 we packed up and headed home. They had a long drive back to Stockton, and we were off to the fireworks. It will be sad to see them move to D.C. but I'm sure we'll see them again... hopefully sooner rather than later. We will definitely miss them.

She's alive!!

Last night at about 10:45 I felt the first sign of life inside of me. Chase and I were laying in bed talking while I was eating a cheese stick. All of a sudden I felt something so weird I threw the covers off me and told Chase I thought I just felt the baby move. He rolled over and put his hand on my tummy. Sure enough, it was the baby and she was quite active. It was so foreign to me that I couldn't do anything else but laugh. We were laughing so hard. I was starting to get worried because I hadn't really felt her yet... there have been a couple times where I've thought that maybe it was her, but just wasn't sure. I no longer need to worry! Then today at about 1:30 while I was sitting at my desk I felt her again. I swear I just felt her again, but maybe I'm just crazy. It's the most amazing thing because there's a life growing inside of me and I can feel it! I'm so excited for the remainder of my pregnancy to feel all the movements and everything.
And since I'm no longer sick, it's making my pregnancy even better. I LOVE BEING PREGNANT!!!

IT'S A GIRL!!!

Last week we found out we're having a girl. We had been in the room for about 20 minutes and she finally told us. I tried to figure it out before she said what we were having but couldn't tell. Chase could tell it was a girl. After the appointment we went to Jim's burgers and then to the hospital to tell his mom. Before I left work I told my co-workers they would know what we're having by the color of shirt I was wearing when I came back. I was pretty sneaky though. I wore a pink shirt but put a jacket on over the top and zipped it all the way up so you couldn't see any pink. They were all so anxious to find out so I had to play with them a little. I thought it was funny. Then later on that night we told my parents. They came to our house and we told them we had an early Grandparents gift we wanted to give them before we revealed the news. We put pink balloons full of helium inside a plastic bin. When they opened it the balloons came flying out. That was fun... they're excited.

Saturday I went with my mom baby furniture shopping. It was just the 2 of us cause, in Chase's own words..."I'm not goin' with you and flippin' Kenna!" So off we went to Baby USA. After walking around the store for a while I finally narrowed it down to the set I wanted but the color, well that's another story. We didn't want white, and we didn't want dark because that will show marks to easy. I should not be in charge of making a decision like that on my own because I can not make up my mind. So I called Chase. He didn't care so I decided on the natural color. I think it will look good. It should lighten the room up. Then the other night we bought the baby bedding off Overstock.com for $80. That's awesome considering you get 10 pieces with the set.

Chase actually pointed it out so I'll give him the credit.

I don't know much about raising kids, actually nothing at all. But I do know one thing... Girls are drama so Chase and I had better buckle up for some pretty dramatic years! We really are excited to have a little girl... hopefully she'll have dark, curly hair... who knows though, she could be bald. We'll love her either way!!!

19 Weeks!!

It's been a while since I've updated my blog... I new I would fall behind! Anyway, a lot has changed since the last post. Our baby is growing and so is my tummy! I haven't been near as sick as I was during weeks 6-15. I still have my days where I puke if I don't have enough in my stomach, but it's not near as bad as it was. We've been to the doctor 3 times so far and the next appointment, a week from tomorrow, is the big one. We'll meet with the ultra sound tech and she'll be able to tell us what we're having. I've felt like we're having a girl, and I've had a dream about a baby girl with dark curly hair. But we very well could be having a boy. We would like a boy first, but we'll be happy with whatever we get... we just want a healthy baby! It's been fun to see the ultra sound because I haven't felt the baby move yet and when we go to the doctor we can see it moving... it's really cool. I've kind of been thinking how I would like to do the nursery, but it's hard to know for sure since we don't know where we'll be living.

That's another thing... we've started house shopping. We found a house we really like but we aren't quite ready financially. I'm ready for my own house. I've loved living at 807 but we're outgrowing it very quickly. I want a place that has a couple hall closets, storage space for food, a pantry and bigger windows. We could really use 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. We want a 2 car garage. We would like a yard that's been well kept. Those are just a few things we're looking for. We really aren't too picky. We've been looking out in Roy because houses are cheaper out there and we have to stay pretty close to Ogden Regional because that's where Chase will be working and gas is too expensive to live far away.

I'm going to try hard to take more pictures throughout the rest of my pregnancy because they will be fun to look back on when our baby is older. So I'll try and update this more often.

Can you say 'nauseous'? How 'bout 'vomit'?

Well, just when I thought I was going to sneak past being sick, it hit me!! I was doing really well up until last week... of course it hit just as I was starting my vacation. Me, Tanya and Becky had our Park city trip all planned out. The Cheesecake Factory for dinner, The Little America to stay the night and then Park City to shop on Saturday. Well Friday night we had about a 2 hour wait at the restaurant. I didn't really eat anything before I left (which I have now learned was wrong) so I was really hungry by the time we got down there. Well I got very nauseous as we waited for our turn to be seated. Of course I didn't want to say anything to the girls because we want to wait until our appointment on the 25th. So I just kept it on the down low.

Saturday came and we had a bagel for breakfast but that was all. We talked about grabbing some lunch up in Park City so I assumed I would be ok. Well, we got wrapped up in shopping and never went for lunch. I was starving by about 1 so I went and grabbed a pretzel. Around 4:30 we were ready to come home and again, I was nauseous so I stopped at Arby's and we all got sandwiches. That just started off my vacation of being nauseous.

Tuesday we left for Disneyland. We had a blast, however, I had to really stay on top of my eating because if I didn't I would get sick. Our trip went just like that the entire time. But... when we got home it seemed to take a turn for the worst. I was so sick on Sunday that I threw up at Church. When we came home I slept for 2 hours. It's been hard trying to keep this a secret from our families. We had dinner with my parents on Sunday and I just pretended like I didn't know why I was sick... too much junk food or tired, I'm not sure.

Then this morning I threw up twice before going to work. So I decided that today was a good day to tell my work so I talked to Becky this morning. I was nervous but she was excited for me. So to this day the only people who know are Chase and I, Drew and Lori and Becky at work. We had to tell Drew and Lori because of our trip to Disneyland. There were a lot of rides I couldn't go on and I didn't want to try and hide it the entire time.

I'm feeling pretty good right now and it's about 8:30 at night. So that tells me I'll probably be sick in the mornings. Luckily my work knows so if I have to go in late once in a while it'll be ok. Well, here is a picture of my belly at about 6 weeks. This is going to be fun to look back on. I think I'm in for an adventurous 9 months... hopefully I'm not having twins!!

Constant Changes

Just when I was beginning to get comfortable with my calling in the Young Women's, the Lord throws a fastball. I was set apart on sunday to be the secretary in the Primary Presidency. I have never been in Primary before so as you can probably guess I'm pretty nervous. Since we've lived in this ward... 3 years in May... I have been on the Enrichment Committee, Laurel Advisor, 1st Counselor in the Young Women Presidency and now the secretary in Primary. We had our first meeting last night. I think it will be a good experience for me. Especially now that I'm pregnant... I definately need the practice with kids!

It's official!

Chase and I decided that it was time to start our own little family. So... we decided not to try in January because if we did and if I ended up pregnant, there would be no Canada trip. From what I understand that wouldn't be good. So, we decided to start trying after January. Well, February came... I seemed to be pretty regular for the past 3 months or so. When the end of the month came, the 25th to be exact, and I hadn't started I had a feeling we were pregnant. I had been feeling the symptoms I normally felt around the time of my cycle, so I didn't think anything, until I hadn't started. I had a pregnancy test, and it was expired so I decided to use it anyway. This was Tuesday, February 26th. Chase was at clinicals. We had talked the night before, and he told me to take the test and call him once I had a result. Well, I took the test and sure enough, a little + - showed up on the display. I thought, "you have got to be kidding, we never really tried". I had always thought it would take me a while to get pregnant because it took my mom a very long time. So, I tried calling Chase but he didn't answer, so I sent him a text asking him if he was ready to be a daddy. He called me before he read the text, which was better. That day Chase checked online about an expired pregnancy test and it basically told us we should try again. So that tuesday right when I got off work, I ran to Wal-mart to buy another test. Thankfully I had Young Womens on tuesday, so it made the night go by fast. Wednesday morning I woke up and went straight to the toilet. I was nervous/excited. Sure enough, that test on tuesday was correct. I ran in and woke Chase up and of course, he couldn't go back to sleep!
We've determined that I'm about 4 weeks along. That makes my due date November 3rd. Thankfully I haven't had any morning sickness!!! I've found that when my tummy is empty I get nauseous, but other than that, and being exhausted when I come home from work at night, I'm doing really well. I had always assumed I would be hugging the toilet every morning, but that hasn't happened yet... cross my fingers!!
Some of the thoughts I've had over the past few days are...

• I wonder what the baby will look like.


• What do I need to do to deliver a healthy baby?


• All the many changes my body will experience.


• How am I going to announce it to everyone... especially my mom.


• What am I going to do about our Disneyland trip in 2 weeks?


• How much weight will I gain?


• How will my back handle the pregnancy?


• How will I decorate the nursery once we buy our own home in a few months?


• I need to eat really good so I don't get sick or fat... haven't done so well on this one tonight, I've already had a big bowl of ice cream.

We've decided that we don't want to tell anyone until after our first doctor appointment on the 27th. At that time I'll be 8 weeks along and hopefully they'll be able to tell by then how the baby is doing. It's so strange to think that I'm pregnant... it hasn't sunk in yet. My hope is to keep this a secret, so hopefully I don't spill the beans. My plan is to update this daily if possible. I want to get good at it so I can use it for the baby. Chase and I already have names picked out, so that's helpful. I just hope I can do all I need to, to have an easy pregnancy. I have a lot running through my mind right now of all the things I want to accomplish before I have this baby. Better get started!!

A New Beginning

I started this blog a few months ago and decided I wasn't funny enough, so I deleted all my posts... but never went back. Since humor doesn't run in my blood, I might as well be me. Sooo... here I go with my blog. I've always wanted to keep a journal but everytime I would write in one, I would get writers cramp, so I would never last long. I regret not keeping one while Chase and I dated. I've writen on and off since I got married, but I need to be better. I'm hoping this will help me.

I want to start by expressing my feelings of the passing of President Gordon B. Hinckley. I was very saddened when I heard the news. He was such an example to me of someone who was patient, kind, gentle, knowledgeable, funny, and spiritual. He is the only Prophet that I really remember. I can remember President Hunter... a little... but President Hinckley was "My Prophet." The last week as I have read the news paper and watched the news reports on t.v. , I'm motivated to be a better person. How thankful I am that life doesn't end at death. What a comfort it is to know that one day we will be with our family and friends, and all others who have lived a righteous life. What a powerful thing repentance is! We have each day to become a little better. We don't have to wait until the beginning of a new year to make changes. I know that when we follow the teachings of the Prophet and apostles that we are on the path that will lead us back to our Heavenly Father and Savior. I love this Gospel!! I know that the church will continue to move forward and President Monson will be a wonderful Prophet, as was President Hinckley.