There's a baby in my belly...

Mark and I had been trying for a little while to have a baby. When it actually happened I was shocked! I had told myself not to get my hopes up, because I had already done that in the previous months. I woke up early and finally just decided I better take a test. I really had set myself up that it would be negative. Mark was still asleep so I was trying to be very sneaky and quite. 

This was officially the hardest secret I've ever had to keep. I really wanted to surprise Mark and had been collecting items to make it special for him. I'm pretty sure I texted him multiple times that day just to say I love you!

I had this thought though that what if it was a fluke. What if the test was wrong? So on the way to work I bought a few more. I tested all throughout the day just to make sure that there were still 2 lines. 

I made the banner and got balloons after work. It felt like the longest day. Those 2 hours waiting for Mark were the worst. I had gathered the shirts, book, and rattle in the previous months to help with the surprise. I anxiously waited for Mark to get home. I stood under the banner waiting....

I wish now that I had taken a picture of his face! He read the banner and said, "REALLY??? REALLY? OH MY GOSH!" I loved being able to see his excitement in the news as well.  

We kept it all pretty quiet because we knew we had a trip coming up to California. We had our first appointment and heard the heartbeat at 6 weeks. That was such a relief to me to hear that little sound. We had another appointment at 8 weeks to hear it one more time before we told our families. 

Father's Day was around the corner and we were going to be out of town. We got both grandpas shirts to help tell them. 

Rob and Stephanie were very excited to learn that once again they were going to be grandparents!

We headed to California for Camden's baptism and to tell my family. It was so hard not to tell them, but I had made a quilt for my mom to tell her and really wanted to be in person to see her open it.

My mom is the one who taught me to sew and kept asking when she would be getting her own quilt. I thought this was the perfect way to surprise her! She was just so excited to get the quilt and then when Mark helped her turn it over he said and guess which baby love you??? She instantly lost it. It really was a great moment. I wish the whole family could have been together to see it. 

We had plans to meet up with the rest of the family and I slowly whispered it in their ears. The best reaction came from Jayden who just kept looking at my belly. He said, "In there? Right now? A Baby??" It was pretty cute. It was nice for everyone to know finally!

We were able to tell the rest of Mark's family once we got back from vacation. I loved being able to share with everyone and just be excited!

I decided to tell my students a couple of days before school got out. These kids were so good to me the last couple weeks of school. I had started to be sick and tired a lot more. They had no idea it was because I was pregnant, but were so helpful with everything. 

We played hangman and the last sentence they guess was the picture above. It was the BEST way to tell them. I loved seeing the look on their faces as they started to figure out what the words were. I told them not to say anything out loud and just let everyone figure it out on their own. Finally, with all the letters up there they yelled, YOU ARE HAVING A BABY!!! Hugs were given and squeals of excitement. 

We had our 12 week appointment and this picture melted my heart! This was the first time that you could really tell there was a baby in my belly. That little profile made me feel like such a proud mom for the first time. 

With many of our friends and family already knowing, we decided to make an official announcement to the social media world. I just grabbed a few things I had around the house and snapped this cute little photo. 

We are THRILLED. We love this little baby so much already. It has not been easy. Really that is an understatement. I've never been someone who gets sick very often, so it has taken a toll on my body to feel this sick all of the time. Luckily I'm hitting that 2nd trimester and it seems to be helping some. I still have a bad day here or there. I will say that Mark is the true superstar of this all. He has been so patient, loving, kind, helpful, etc. I love him more and more every day. He has never gotten frustrated when dinner wasn't made, house was a mess, or I'm still in pajamas at 6pm. He loves to talk to baby and tries to explain that baby really needs to be nicer to mommy :) I'm feeling very fortunate to have married such a wonderful man who takes such good care of us.

Right now we both really think it's a GIRL! We will find out in the next couple of weeks for sure and then we will start planning, naming, shopping, etc!

Summer Time

Summer finally came and we have been loving the vacations, extra time together, and visitors!

We started our summer off with a visit to California! Camden turned 8 and we wanted to be there for his baptism.

We went to an A's game to celebrate the birthday boy. We even did it Bushey style and tail-gated before. We had a really good time being with the whole family.

 Just a little backyard basketball for the Hoppes Family!

Once back in Utah we had a few things planned to keep us entertained. Of course it was hot for most of them, but we made it work.

We went to a Bees game for FHE with the in laws.

4th of July we were pretty low key this year. We went for a swim at the lake and then met up with some family. I love having family close by so we can spend the holidays together.

Of course we had to watch the fireworks!

We celebrated our 1st anniversary! 

I honestly can't believe it has already been a year. I feel like we got married and got right back to normal life. It has been an amazing year and I'm so lucky that I married such a good man. We have so much fun together and LOVE our time together. 

 We stayed close to home and spent the weekend in SLC. It was nice to get out of the house, but not have to travel very far. We ate, slept, watched movies, walked, swam, and laughed a lot. It was a perfect weekend for just us.

 We even tasted a little bit of our left over cake!

Mark LOVES Rush! He bought tickets so that I could experience it for myself. We had a good time and they put on a really great show.

Cami and the kids were able to make a visit to see us! We loved having them here. We play the Wii a lot, swam, ate, and snuggled. It was nice to have our house full of people for a couple of days. Hopefully they will come back again soon!

Pioneer Day! Mark had the day off so we were LAZY! We stayed in bed late, got lunch, napped, and then watched the fireworks from afar in Herriman. It was just the kind of day that we needed.

The next day the family decided to head to Donut Falls for a little hike and then campfire afterwards. I really love this hike because its quick and easy and the reward is so amazing. Last time we went there was a ton of water and you couldn't really see the Donut part. This time Mark and I were able to climbed up the waterfall and go into the little caves to see it all. The other perk was that it was so nice to share it with family. We love having everyone close by and getting together to just hang out and laugh.

Lately...

We have been having a few adventures lately. It finally has stopped raining and we are able to get out and do more! I'm praying it doesn't get much hotter, otherwise I won't ever want to leave the house!

Here is what we have been doing:

We spent Saturday with some of the Urry's at Silver Lake up American Fork Canyon. We fished, ate, and kayaked. We had a blast being outside and couldn't believe the views.

One Sunday we decided to drive up Big Cottonwood Canyon and do a short hike to Donut Falls. I have always wanted to go, but never have. It was a quick and easy hike, with a beautiful view at the end. 

Since Silver Lake ( a different one) is just a few minutes drive up the canyon we decided to walk around it as well. This lake never disappoints! 

 I was off track and had a few days to finish up a quilt for my friend Melanie's new baby girl. I really loved how this one turned out.

 Lorenzo is getting to be a little fatty!

 We had a fire one night with the family. These kids crack me up!

 Ellie (my friend Alex's little girl) turned one! We joined in on the circus themed party!

Reptile Expo with the hubby! 

I could spend all my nights next to Mark by the fire!

Lately....

Our lives are pretty filled with normal day to day activities. There are a few days where we have something extra special and fun. Thank goodness I have a fun hubby who enjoys having a little bit of fun with me. 

Bring Your Own Cup Slurpee Day! This was an amazing day! Ha ha! I love Slurpees and was so excited Mark was willing to participate. We were in a major sugar coma afterwards, but it was totally worth it. 

Teacher Appreciation! I maybe had to fill out a paper telling the kids what I like. I had just gotten back from a road trip where I ate a lot of Cheez-Its. I now have 10 boxes of them and enough peanut butter cups to last me a lifetime. Did I mention this was all week two of my diet plan... :(

Rhett ( family friend and former student) celebrated a birthday. He was excited to get some new ties. Mark was so cute with him and showed him a few different ways. He spent the evening practicing over and over again. 

We made it to one of Miles' baseball games! He was super cute running around tackling the ball.

I decided to surprise Mark with a date night! We went to watch the Bees game. It just so happened that the storm they predicted was a couple of days late and landed on game night. They still played and didn't call it until late in the 9th. Luckily I brought an umbrella and it was Beard Night so we had these awesome hats to help us get through. 

For Mark's birthday I got him a trip out to the race track to drive a Ferrari! He was so excited to finally get to use it. We were a little worried it might bet rained out, but luckily it stopped for about an hour! He had a blast. I wish he could have driven a little longer, but glad he had a dream come true.

I've been looking forward to the opening of the Payson LDS Temple for awhile now. From all the pictures people had posted it looked like it was going to be a beautiful temple. It was gorgeous. I was in awe at the amazing detail put into each room.  I'm so glad we were able to walk through and see it and I can't to go back and do some temple work there as well.

Easter 2015

This Easter we decided to head to California. Grandma Hoppes recently moved out of her house and before she sells it we wanted to have (at least) one more big family party there. I have so many fond memories of their house and was very excited to get to show Mark everything.

We stopped in Sparks the night before to get a good night's sleep. We knew there would be lots of fun to be had at Grandma's.  We had $4 in cash and thought we might as well play the slots. We aren't very good, and really it's not that much fun. Good thing we always have fun together no matter what we are doing!

The next morning we headed through Lassen Nation Forest. It was gorgeous. I had never made that drive to Grandma's house and I'm so glad we did. We took our time and just enjoy it.

Isn't this an amazing yard?? I would love to have a yard and forest like this surrounding my house!

Cami's family and my parents came up that evening. It was fun to have the house full! 

We decorated Easter eggs and had a BBQ! Watching Parker was the best. He is getting so much older and watching him try to figure out the egg droppers was pretty funny.

In the morning we were anxious for the Easter bunny to come and then the rest of the family!

 Luckily the hunt ended right before the rain started coming down. We didn't let the rain stop the party though!

Once Kyle's crew got into town we headed out to the train tracks. Grandma's house is surrounded by a forest. Behind the forest are these awesome train tracks and a mill. We always loved playing on the trails. I love seeing the kids having as much fun as we did. Of course afterwards we had s'mores!

By the afternoon we had over 60 people at the house! Auntie Lynne and all of her kids and grandkids were able to join us. We LOVE, LOVE, LOVE having them with us. Their kids are so kind and play so well with everyone. This meant that we had a GIANT Easter egg hunt. These kids were in heaven!

Our favorite tradition when we were younger was doing a Day After Christmas Bonfire! We looked forward to it every year. We haven't done it since my Grandpa Hoppes died and decided we should probably do one this year.  Even in the rain we still had a blast. The men built a good size fire, we roasted hot dogs, marshmallows, and even made mud potatoes.

Mud Potatoes are my favorite! I use to love when my Dad would take me hunting for a good clay spot. Once you find the clay you work it and smooth it out. You then take a raw potato and put the clay around the potato.  Then you place it in the fire and let it cook. They always turn out yummy. It was fun to see my Dad teaching all of the kids how to make them. We ended up a little dirty, but totally worth it.

Did I mention that we also had a full on Easter meal while all of this was happening?? Ham, potatoes, veggies, salads, fruit, treats, etc. We were not lacking in food that day!

Everyone had to head back so it was just Mark and I Sunday night at the house. I'm so grateful that we were able to make this trip.  I love my family so much and sharing our traditions with Mark has been a lot of fun.

The weather that weekend wasn't the greatest, but luckily it stopped raining and snowing for us through the pass. The snow made for some pretty amazing views!