Carl & Ellie

Is this not the most precious, sad, heartwarming clip that Disney has ever created?  I realize I'm a bit more emotional right now than normal but the fact that I just cried watching it is not simply because I'm pregnant.  I bawled the first time I saw it 2 years ago as well!

I'm pregnant!

So most of you already know this, but John and I found in September that we are pregnant!  We're expecting our first baby on April 17th and are SO EXCITED!  We had hoped to start a family a little earlier, but God apparently had plans for us to wait a bit.  There were times where that waiting period was difficult... but the blessing of God's grace for us during trying times is so powerful.  I would not have wanted to exchange that blessing for my plan or my timing.  I am so thankful for His.  

Finding out we were pregnant was honestly a complete shock.  The weekend we found out, I had been feeling "weird".  Super fatigued, dizzy, nauseous and by Sunday morning I told John that I should probably make a doctor's appointment because I just didn't feel right.  He said that's fine, but suggested maybe we should get a pregnancy test.  I told him I was pretty sure I wasn't pregnant... and that honestly, I just didn't know if I wanted to have another negative test.  He said he understood... but at the least, another negative test would rule something out before I saw my doctor.  I agreed and said we'd get a test after church that morning.  (Side note - that morning at church I asked someone to pray for me.  That God would take care of whatever this sickness was in me... and also - like we had prayed many times before - that God would give us a baby soon. :)  )  We stopped and got a test, came home and immediately could see that it was positive!!!  I felt so excited/shocked but also hesitant... was the test correct??  Do we celebrate??  John interrupted my questions and encouraged me (and himself) to celebrate this moment.  We chose to believe that God had been with us through all of our prayers for a baby... that He was with us now for these test results... and that He'll be with us for whatever's next - regardless of what the future may hold.  So celebrate we did - with  praises, tears and laughing.  

When we found out the news!

That week, I made a doctor's appointment and we were able to have our first ultrasound.  What an incredible and emotional experience!  It's all such a miracle.  Much to our surprise, I was about 2 months pregnant already!  Which meant God had answered our prayers way before we even realized it.  :)  After our doctors appointment, we celebrated with Pinkberry frozen yogurt and some shopping at Pottery Barn Kids!

Our tiny little baby

More posts to come on Baby Shaida!

Random catch-up

Just came across some pics that I've been meaning to blog.  Whoops.   Excuse the random-ness, but regardless... these pics make me smile.


This is me the night before Thanksgiving last year.  This is me IN THE DARK, trying to cook with my sister, Christi.  It's tradition - we always stay up late, play Christmas music/movies and bake all kinds of goodies for the next day.  All was going just fine until the power went out at her house... making the baking part a bit tricky which resulted in lots of laughs and ridiculousness  :)

Christmas morning last year, at John's parents house.  We're watching White Christmas (and I'm drinking Pumpkin Spice Dunkin Donuts coffee... which by the way, is a lil bit of heaven in a cup) but please notice the cutie-patootie bunny slippers on my feet.  My adorable husband got me these for Christmas, and picked them out all by himself!  I just lovelovelove them.  As in, I seriously considered going to buy multiple, identical pairs because I know they won't last forever and I don't ever want to give them up.

Here's almost all of the pictures we took on our Bahamas Cruise (which was a gift I received from my boss!) in January... which means we barely took any.  :)  We were honestly just too "busy" relaxing.  And these 3 shots are a perfect representation of that: me sitting on the end of a pier in Key West, FL after walking around some of the shops downtown... John and I lounging on the cruiseline's private island with almost no one in sight... and finally us in Nassau, where we walked around the Atlantis Hotel and meandered around their resort's gorgeous outdoor beach/rainforest/aquarium.  No tour guide, no big group of tourists, just us... and it was perfect.  

Since we didn't travel to either of families for Easter this year, I decided to host a little dinner at our house.  We invited our friends, Cody and Christy over with their precious boys and also John's grandpa who lives in Colorado near us.  Even though we missed our families, it was a great day of opening our home for a holiday dinner.  (I made my first real ham!)  After lunch, we had a Easter egg hunt for the boys, which was crazy cute  :)     

This summer, after being in Dallas for a week-long work training, I flew back home on my birthday.  John met me at the airport with roses... took me out to an awesome Italian dinner (complete with my favorite dessert - Tiramasu!)... booked us a Denver hotel and then the next day - it was every girl's dream.  He took me shopping ALL day long, letting me peruse in any and every store I wanted.  He waited patiently with a smile, even when I spent an an hour and a half in just one store (Anthropologie... a favorite store of mine that isn't very guy-friendly).  My man.  He's incredible.