The Penrod Family Diaries

9 months

2011-12-14T15:58:00.000-08:00

Harley is 9 months old today! A few things about her:

*She loves anything crinkly and shiny (always has)

*She got her first tooth on Sunday(3 days ago)-- FINALLY! sheesh.

*She can army crawl across the room- not on all fours yet

*She gives kisses now- my very favorite!

*She loves nap time! i put her in her crib and she gets a huge smile on her face and kicks her legs like she can't contain her excitement. Then she pull the blanket over her face, puts her thumb in her mouth, and is out before i have left the room

*She loves books and loves to turn the page

*She had her 9 month check up today and she is now in the 40th percentile for height (last time she was in the 30th- she's growing!) She was in the 28th for weight and last time she was in the 50th- she loves food and eats all the time, but I am putting her back on more formula the time being; and 50th percentile for head circumference- right on the money!

*She is such a good baby. Sometimes she will just sit in her bumbo for an hour with no toys and just observe everyone- I'm trying to watch what I do and say right now because she sees EVERYTHING!

*I can't wait to give her another sibling that she can love on. I can already tell she will be an amazing help to me and such a great big sister.

NEWs

2011-12-14T10:30:00.000-08:00

We have MOVED people! We were so blessed and fortunate to have been able to live in a home that my grandpa owned for the last almost three years RENT FREE. what a huge blessing! we were able to save a lot of money and have been fortunate enough to not have had to take out student loans for taylor to finish school. we were living in a one bedroom basement and we milked it as long as we could.... harley had taken over the bedroom so we slept out by the tv. :) it was an interesting set up, but we made it work and it was easy to make it work due to the no rent clause...

anyways, we were rapidly outgrowing the basement. we decided to look for a new place as we would like to start ahem... trying soon! :) not for another couple of months, but we want to when harley is around one. she's nine months today! three more months, hopefully if we get on insurance, we start the trying process of having another baby. (taylors favorite part! haha). we found a three bedroom apartment that is $750 a month! great deal! it is wonderful. the apartment was re-painted, re-tiled, re-carpeted, and re-baseboard-ed :) we love it. its wonderful to have our own space! (did i mention my cousins lived in the other house my grandpa owned, so we had been living with roommates our entire marriage). i feel like i newlywed again! it was great! we had all of our wedding presents in storage so we went through them all and opened them again. it was like christmas day!

what a wonderful year we have had. we have welcomed harley into the family, we got a new car, we went on some great vacations, taylor got a new and wonderful job, we had HARLEY, we have moved, taylor got accepted into the nursing program, and countless other blessings! I'm so thankful for the lords hand in our lives. I'm so thankful for this time of year when we can really remember the lords life and celebrate his influence in our lives. what a wonderful time of year!

i have some pictures of our wonderful cruise we took in october so i will post pics soon!

T-I-M-E

2011-10-04T17:39:00.000-07:00

We have recently learned that te true spelling of L-O-V-E is T-I-M-E...

I'm so grateful that all day everyday THIS is how I spend my time and who I spend my time with.

Time and love well spent I would say.

T-I-M-E

this

face!!!!!!

**Quick update:

Harley is now 6 and a half months.

She loves to touch anything and everything and she is FAST. If she wants it, she goes for it and it's much faster than I ever expect it to be because I still look at her as a little baby :(

She eats baby food: her faves are sweet potatoes, pears, apples and carrots.

She laughs all the time and she smiles sooooo big.

Her tongue is always out and is starting to curl up all the time!

She LOVES to hear herself talk including yelling really loud while we pat her mouth so it makes the wawawawawawa sound- (she loves that!)

When she smiles her eyes turn into little half moons and she scrunches her nose. It's pretty much the cutest thing ever.

She still takes three naps a day- (the first two an hour each, the last on is one and a half to two hours long).

Anything that she gets in her chubby little hands is surely going to be in her mouth within seconds.

She wears size three diapers... they're sooooo big!

She loves her bumbo.

She can sit up as long as she has a toy to play with in front of her.

She is in love with her daddy.

She doesn't do well with babysitters if she doesn't know them very well.

Not to brag (especially because my last post was all about how fake people are and how i get so sick of earing them brag about their fantasy lives...) but I frequently hear from people both friends and strangers, that she should be in baby commercials or in some kind of beauty contest. I think she's beautiful, however, I refuse to become a toddlers and tiaras mom thank you very much...

bleh.

2011-09-18T17:04:00.000-07:00

im sorry people im going to vent. i havent been going on facebook as much as i used to recently because im so sick of all the, as i like to call them, facebook liars. it urks me to no end when people constantly use their status updates as a reminder to everyone else in the world that they are better than anyone else. i have talked about this with my friends lately and i will openly admit, i am guilty too. but i have been trying to be much more careful about it lately.
when harley was a newborn i was glued to facebook because i felt like it was my lifeline to the outside world. it was winter, and i was stuck at home in a basement with her. im not trying to sound negative because i absolutely love being a mother and wouldnt change it for anything, but im sure lots of other mothers understnad, the first few months are challenging. youre hormonal, chubby, exhausted, and can feel very alone even though youre surrounded by people all the time. when i would go on facebook to get updates, i found myself always comparing my life to everyone else. ***remember! i was hormonal, exhausted, and i wasnt allowed to go out with the baby until RSV season was over... after a while i realized that i was becoming very unsatisfied with my own life. everything that i had wasnt good enough. i wanted a house, a new car, to be skinny, to have more money, to go on trips, to live the same life of "luxury" as everyone else on facebook.
well i have news for everyone. facebook liars are taking over the world. some of these people i know personally and i will read all their posts about how amazing their life is and their relationships with others and their houses and cars and all that other material crap. then when i see them in real life, they vent to me about how everything is terrible and they want more. when are people going to appreciate what they have? like i said, i am guilty as charged! i have been one to gloat and flaunt and fish for compliments, in hopes of getting all the comments that help me feel better about myself. i am also one to long and lust and wish for more- im only human. but lately i have been trying to have a clear mind and focus on whats best for me and my family in our life and how we can be happy in achieving that.
i dont think its appropriate by any means to bash your husband publicly after a fight, or constantly complain about how you have nothing in life, but i honestly think its equally innapropriate to flaunt and gloat talk about how amazing everything is. real and true gratitude comes hand in hand with humility.
sorry, im not meaning to be a debbie downer, or to make you all feel guilty about posting about happy things in your life, and i hope im conveying a positive message in the end. these are just all my opinions. work hard for what you have. enjoy what you have. be grateful for what you have. the lord can take it away in the blink of an eye, so appreciate it while you have it.

Crib!

2011-08-25T21:25:00.000-07:00

It's about time! (we put it on the lowest setting because we are lazy and don't want to change it later on... stop judging).

Harley loves her big girl bed!

So... we finally set up Harley's crib! What good parents we are... ha. We were hoping to move by now, but with Taylor losing his job right before we had her, and then having to retake a class because of lack of sleep after she was born (in the middle of the semester), resulting in not being able to apply for the nursing program until this month, we haven't had the chance! We aren't going to move until we know for sure he is in the nursing program so we're crossing our fingers...

She has been sleeping in a pack-n-play this whole time! haha. She loves her "big girl" bed and still sleeps 12 hours a night- thank the heavens above. She is such a good baby. If she's hungry, she sucks her thumb. If she's tired, she sucks her thumb. She only cries if she is hurting--rarely-- or if I'm smothering her too much--hourly :). We just love this little girl!

Rice Cereal

2011-08-01T11:55:00.000-07:00

so today was the first time we tried rice cereal and im thinking it was successful! she did pretty well. ate more than i expected. ended with a smile. and she got more food afterwards from her bottle (which happens to be her favorite thing on this planet).

this technically is the second time... we tried a week and a half ago and it didnt go so well, so i get her prepped by putting her in her bumbo a ton this past week and waiting until she was really hungry and it worked. she loved it! a little cereal and some apple sauce. shes officially a fan of (almost) human food!

vacations, horseshoes, and dr's appointments

2011-07-21T21:34:00.000-07:00

sorry its a little blurry! it was on instagram on my phone, but anyways, she is making the saddest face ever! its sooooo cute

what a perfectly cute little face

hello friends. we are doing well over here in the penrod household, just enjoying the summer to the max. we just returned from a beach trip to oceanside, ca. sooooo beautiful. we loved lounging at the beach for five days with our family, and harley really enjoyed the long naps in the pack and play on the beach with the sea breeze blowing around her. it felt wonderful to soak up that sun (even though i wore SPF 30 everyday... im a little safe about my skin these days).

it started out a little rough. we got there wednesday night and we went to dennys because it was close and we were starving. i have a strict personal rule to only get breakfast food there because i cant ever bring myself to order anything else. taylor, however, has a strict personal rule that he doesnt eat breakfast food for any other meal besides breakfast. i ordered build your own slam. he ordered the southwest chicken sandwich. bad move.

around 12 am he woke up wretching (both ends). terrible. he came in and woke me up around 6:30 because he was vomitting blood. we finally found an urgent care that opened at 8 (the rest open at 9) and we went in. we currently are health insurance-less, so urgent care was better financially than th ER. it was $98 to see a dr. that told us he was dehydrated. really? i wasnt aware... he told us to go to the ER, but $500 dollars later, he wouldve gotten some fluids and a dr bill for $250 when the dr visited for 5 seconds to tell him he was dehydrated. we told urgent care the ER wasnt an option, so they gave us a prescription for zofran- (an anti-nausea med i had in abundance in utah left over from my pregnancy). so.... 9 pills of zofran without insurance? $76!!!!! R I P O F F. we said no thanks.
we got home, got a blessing from my dad for free, and that seemed to do the trick as it always does. with a seven hour nap and some pedialyte pops, taylor was good as new. mostly.

so saturday rolls around and we have the traditional horseshoe tourney. it was couples this year, and $5 a head for a grand prize of $80. i have bad experiences with horseshoes. i almost killed my niece once with one. anyhoo, taylor is good at everything (extremely annoying sometimes, but this day it worked to our advantage). i just got plain lucky. we made it to the finals vs none other than jimmy and carly! so fun. WE WON! you go to 15 and we TIED, so we went another round and we scored, they didnt. final score= 16-15. amazing. we got paid back for instacare (almost).

ps- i brought my camera down and not my charger, problem. camera was dead. no pictures. lame.

harley had her four month shots and check-up today. traumatizing for everyone. not only did she get some shots, we found out our sweet baby girl has some weird yet somewhat common (1 in 30 girls according to our pediatrician) problem with her girl area.... sorry, kinda weird, but very interesting. i had no clue this could happen and i had never heard of it for it being so "common." probably because no one likes to talk about it... except me of course!
so.... her girl area (keepin it G-rated) has "adhered" together. what the?! yup. she was born just fine, two month check up, just fine. four month check up, sealed off.... the dr says that a lot of times babies will get rashes and the body wants to heal, then it notices the skin is seperated where a hole is (sorry to be graphic) and so it gradually closes. no worries though, no surgery needed. just some ointment. very strange though right? i didnt think much of it because the dr was so nonchalant about it, but throughout the day i would randomly think about it and it freaked me the heck out. poor baby girl. she took her shots like a champ though. less crying than her two month ones. i love that baby more than anything....

so, traumatic day, but things are looking up. we go to VEGAS this saturday. so excited about it. definitely will have pics of that trip, so dont you worry.

Summer Festivities

2011-07-05T21:11:00.000-07:00

A little preview of the photoshoot my good friend Christa did of Harley babe... check her out at christastrebs.blogspot.com

Harley Noel on her big day!

Happy Fourth everyone! She's sooooo freaking cute I can't contain myself...

hello friends. we have been so busy lately i havent had a chance to update since our new car! we have been to california twice, had family up here for harleys blessing, gone to seven peaks weekly, celebrated a wonderful fourth of july, i ran my first 5k ever, and had a photo shoot of little penguin with my very talented friend christa! what a wonderful summer so far! we are heading to california again this saturday for our annual family reunion in oceanside california, and i am beyond excited. i LOVE spending time with my family!

In other exciting news, Taylor and I booked a cruise this fall with our good friends Becca and Bryce. (they have a baby 6 weeks younger than Harley). we all needed a good long vacation. we will miss those babies sooooo much, but they get to spend time with their grandmas in california while the parents play in the eastern carribean for a week! yay for us. im soooo excited. we found the cruise for super cheap because its off season and taylor wont be attending school in the fall because he is applying for the nursing program at the end of the summer. i figured we wouldnt get an opportunity like this for a long time, so we jumped at the chance...

we are thrilled!

a new car!

2011-05-04T08:21:00.000-07:00

we got a new car!!! i have been begging for this car for over a year and we finally got it! taylors hurse is officially DONE! he has had this car since he got back from his mission and he bought it for less rhan $500. we have been waiting for it to die for some time now and it has hung in there which is nice, but the baby is NOT allowed to go into that car!well it was registration time and his car didnt pass the safety and emissions check (shocking!)

when that didnt happen we decided to get a new car and it all happened so fast! we picked it up last friday and we ae in love! i really really wanted charcoal or silver but they didnt have ANY in the state of utah! japan has had a rough go lately, so production is down. it wouldve cost 500-1000 dollars to ship in those colors so we went with light blue. its a wonderful car and it only had 17 miles on it!!! ahhh!!!

happy easter!

2011-04-25T09:19:00.000-07:00

This is the outfit Taylor bought for her as her daddy dauhter present to come home from the hospital in, but she was way too little, so here it is for easter. Isn't she just sooooo darling? haha

Well, Easter in the Penrod household wasn't anything too exciting this year. No Easter egg hunts, no Easter baskets either, I just got taylor a hat he wanted and he ot me some clothes and a gift card to NORDSTROMS!!! Yay! Everytime I go to the mall I make him go in there with me and then I say, "I can't wait until you're graduated and you make good money so I can shop here again!" So he took the subtle hints and got me a gift card there... Now all I can think is, "I can't wait until i loose this baby weight and fit into all my expensive nice jeans, and I can buy a cute outfit from Nordstrom that I won't feel like a house in..."

Yes, I'm a horrible mom. No Easter hunt for Harley, and no Easter basket either... Is that terrible? She's 6 weeks old people! She doesn't know what the heck is going on and let's face it, I would have eaten all the candy and chocolate, so i just spared myself the agony of self-destructive post-candy eating thoughts... (ps- she got a basket from grandma Julie a few weeks ago, so that counts!)

We went to Taylor's dad's house for Easter dinner. It was wonderful! Ham, green beans, a fantastic sweet bread that was braided and had hard boiled eggs in it too (fancy!), and we provided dessert-- PIZOOKIES of course! It was a wonderful Easter day!

....ahem (FORMULA) ahem...

2011-04-21T10:22:00.000-07:00

okay first of all sorry about the super long post about harley. i did it more for myself than anyone else because i wanted to include all the details so i wouldnt forget! kind of like a journal entry, since i never write in my journal ever...

anyhoo, i pass NO judgement on moms that feed their babies with formula...how can i? I MYSELF was brought up on the stuff. however, i am all for the breastfeeding and i know how important it is for the baby and the mom and their relationship... yadda yadda yadda. well, harley is doing this thing lately where she wants to eat ALL DAY LONG. its a little bit of a growth spurt if you will. she will eat like every 2-3 hours and take about 5 oz each time. i figured this out because she kept wanting to eat so i pumped to see how uch she was taking and it was 5 oz and she was hungry 2 hours later! thats pretty crazy for a 5 week old. she was taking 4-5 oz at TWO WEEKS old, so shes a chunker.

well, last night she would NOT calm down. she was crying and screaming and getting all worked up, so she wasnt eating well and i fed her three times within a two hour span. then i pumped to get the rest out to feed her a bottle 1. so i could know how much she was actually getting while she was nursing and 2. because i could calm her down while feeding her a bottle so she wouldnt be freaking out and frustrated like her mommy was.

well, when i pumped i got only like 2 oz out, which meant she had already gotten two oz. (or more because i had been feeding her within a teo hour span so i was making more within the two hours than the normal 4 i usually produce). i fed her the bottle and she was still freaking out and not calming down and i had no milk! what was my last resort- formula.

i made a 4 oz bottle just to be safe and i fed it to her. she took it right away, and she drank 3 oz! then she went right to sleep for 6 hours straight! longest run weve had yet! it was so wonderful! then i nursed her the rest of this morning and today. so... im kinda hooked on just feeding her formula right before bed just so she can calm down and be full and sleep and then mommy can sleep! but i will still breastfeed every other feeding. does this make me a bad mom? i dont think so because i want her to be calm and happy and full and to sleep. so for all you formula haters- get over it. sometimes it is something that can be very beneficial...

thats all.

Introducing Harley Noel Penrod

2011-04-20T21:40:00.000-07:00

baby harley right after her bath... cute green bow!

mommy and harley bonding a little bit... (she kept pulling on my IV- did NOT feel good)

Pretty sure she spent the first 4 weeks of her life with her mouth open CONSTANTLY

the penrod clan (arent we so cute?!)

6 pounds 7.7 oz- (they just rounded it up to 6.8)

proud daddy

she had a rough day

sooooooo tired! over 36 hours of contractions and no sleep, i was ready for a NAP! (that didnt come for another hour and a half or so...)

thanks for the oxygen dr, i can take it from here!

ummmm.... i looked and felt like crap, so i needed something to help me feel a little bit better.

OKAY!!!! the story behind it all....

it was saturday march 12, and i was feeling a little crampy. my friend courtney hundley was in town from colorado, so i met her for lunch at rumbi grill (mmmmmmmm...)
i got home and decided to take a little nap because i wasnt feeling too well and i was exhausted (both at 9 months pregnant are a common and daily occurence). i went home and took a nap at about 4. at 6:30 i woke up with a stomach ache, but i didnt really think anything of it because i was HUNGRY. (again, at 9 months pregnant this is a common occurence.)

just at that moment, my friend becca called (who was also visiting from out of town for the weekend). she is also pregnant and due in less than a week from now (congrats becca!), so she was HUNGRY just like me! we decided to get some mexican food at a new restaurant thats right down the street from our house called milagros. it was very very good (aside from the nasty onion ball that bryce got- woof) anyways, i was getting more cramps then too, so i decided to start timing them. they were about 45-60 mons apart, so very staggered and nothing to caus concern. (heck, that happens to some people WEEKS before they give birth.)

************REWIND**********

i forgot to include that wednesday of the prior week, i was told that i was at a zero percent effaced and dilated to a zero. most women will be a one or two for WEEKS before giving birth. my dr. told me that i was at a 1-10 odds with lady luck. i had a 10% chance of delivering on time (march 19th) and i would likely go well over my due date.

okay, back to the story... so we had a delicious dinner and went back to becca and bryces hotel room to play games. we played partini with beccas brother brad and his girlfriend andrea. (very fun game) that night, taylor had an indoor soccer game at MIDNIGHT! what the random time? and it was daylight savings time, AND we had church at 9...ugh -(not to church, just to the combo of the game/daylight savings time/early church...) so at the hotel we got some yummy chocolate cake and creme brule (my favorite dessert!) from maglebys right accross the parking lot. my cramps were coming every 30-45 mins by the time we left to taylors game.

we get to tays game at 11:15 ish. he plays. they win. im hurting. the hurting was now coming every 20 mins or so. we got home at 2 am... (no church for us!) but luckily we had an excuse to not feel bad about missing church...

i layed down and tried to sleep and that was just NOT gonna happen. these cramps were hurting! i got out of bed and went to watch tv at about 2:30 in the morning. eventually at about 6, i was getting these things every 8-10 mins. i felt bad calling the on-call nurse because it really felt like 5am to her because of the time change, so naturally i called my mom in california... which felt like 4am to her.. she was happy to hear from me. anyways, we talked and she told me i was feeling normal things and i was probably in early labor. she told me to call the nurse anyways, its her job right?

SO, i still felt bad and decided to take a bath. i learned the best way to help labor progress is to relax. i took a nice long bath and the contractions subsided. i was getting them every 15-20 mins again. well, over the next couple of hours, they got closer and closer again, so i finally called the nurse. i told her everything and about how i was at a zero 4 days before, so i wasnt sure if i should go to the hospital, only to do the walk of shame to find out it was only braxton hicks or something... she told me to wait until the contractions are either really really painful, or until they were every 2-3 mins apart.

over the course of the day, my contractions would be about 5-6 mins apart. they were pretty painful, and i was getting A LOT of back pain. i kept saying "okay, if it keeps going like this for one more hour, i will go get checked..." only to find that of course a quarter to the hour, they would subside again. SO FRUSTRATING! at this point, my mom and taylors mom julie were driving up from california together. they decided they would rather be a little early, then miss it all together. at about 8 pm on sunday march 13, we went to the hospital. the contractions were still only 5-6 mins apart, but they were killing me and my back felt like it was breaking. i wanted to see if i was even progressing because as far as i knew, i could still be a zero.

we got to the hospital and they checked me.... OWWWWWW!!!! that crap HURTS! taylor said he had never seen me look like i was in that much pain in my life. it felt like a cramp, with a knife.. not pleasant. so she checked me.. i was dilated to a 3 and 80% effaced. she said it could take a really long time to get to a four especially as a first time mom and since i was only 80% effaced, she wouldnt check me in (DANG IT! i wanted that epidural so stinkin bad!) so she gave me a shot of morphine, and told me to come back when it wore off, or when i started to really feel the contractions... (REALLY feel them?! WASNT I ALREADY?!?!?!? hahaha, if i only knew...)

we went home just as my mom and julie (taylors mom) arrived. i was soooo out of it. that shot was amazing! i could still feel them, but i was loopy and falling asleep between them (about every 3 mins, only to be woken up again in another 3 mins with another contraction...) so i was out of commission on the couch, taylor was on the couch next to me sleeping (with his earplugs in, dont worry!) about 2 am, my mom came downstairs because she could hear my breathing. i was breathing through each one and apparently it was very very loud because it woke her up. i never yelled once, and i never said i word, JUST BREATHED, and had a death grip on the couch with occasional kicks to it as well... it helped!) about 2 am, my mom told me that she didnt think she was ever in as much pain as i was, and it was time for me to go back in. we got our bags and headed to the hospital again...

we got there, they checked me, it hurt, LIKE A MOTHER. i was at a 5 and 100%!!! YAY!!! this was about 2:30, by 3am, i had my epidural and was one happy camper... however, i didnt sleep after i got it like most people do. i was too excited about having this baby! they checked me at 6:30 and i was at a 7, progressing quickly. they checked me again at 8, and i was still a 7... lame! the dr came and broke my water and they put me on pitocin to get things going again. the dr had to go into the office at 9, so they told me i was probably gonna have the baby at noon which was his lunch break. WELL, right before he left the hospital, he said "lets just check her before i go because im already here, so i may as well deliver if shes ready." at 8:40, just 40 mins later, i was 100% ready to go! it all happened sooo fast!

i looked around the room and all of the sudden it was full of people! me, taylor, my mom, julie, the nurse, another nurse in training, a paramedic that needed to see a birth for training (awesome), a respiratory therapist, another nurse that handed the dr his tools, becca and her husband bryce (dont worry people i told him i really didnt care if he wanted to watch if i went into labor while they were at the hospital. hes about to have a baby in a month, so why not get some practice so he wont pass out right?)

the nurse grabbed one leg, taylor grabbed the other, and it was go time. i pushed three times for about 10 seconds each and then i would rest. i did about 4 sets of these and then the dr just said "okay stop pushing and just breathe." as i did this, he pushed on my stomach and there was the baby! he pushed her out for me! it was the most amazing, joyous, spiritual experience of my life. the tears flowed between me and my preggo friend becca. everyone followed the baby naturally, but becca came straight to me, we had a little cry and she asked me how i was doing. i was so grateful to have her there!

well, thats the story. isnt it great? she was born at 9:08, 6 pounds 8 oz, 18 1/2 inches long and absolutely perfect.

36 and a half weeks...

2011-02-24T20:21:00.000-08:00

Excuse my white trash-ness. It was a cleaning/laundry day and preparing the nursery. I just realized I hadn't taken a picture in 8 weeks, so I figured it was time!!!

Notice the granola bar and the fruit snacks, those are my go-to snacks!!!

The Lord Knows Best

2011-02-24T19:58:00.000-08:00

Well, the last few months have been interesting to say the least! I haven't been in school this semester with this little bundle on the way, but luckily and thankfully, I have been able to keep busy with odds and ends errands and jobs around the house to prepare for her arrival. I have also been doing a lot of hair for which I am SOOOOOO grateful. The extra income and the time I have spent have helped with time not dragging and with helping us get all the little (and some big) things that are necessary to have a baby. I finally feel a little more prepared to have her!

Well, a few weeks ago, Taylor lost his job. It was very stressful at first, but it has turned out to be a blessing in our lives. With neither one of us working, we have been able to spend some good quality time together, Taylor has been able to focus on school more-(this is his last semester before he applies to nursing school in April), and we have been able to prepare to have this baby. It has been great spending so much time together despite the situation. We would have never thought 2 years ago when we got married- (TWO YEARS!!! on Feb 27th, we wont be newleyweds anymore...) that we would ever be in this situation. I was working THREE jobs when we first got married (after about three months I cut down to two) and Taylor was working full time and going to school. NEVER would I have thought we would be out of work, going to school, and pregnant with our first. Luckily Taylor and I have saved money and we are fortunate to live in a family-owned house for low monthly expenses, and i still have the salon in our house to do hair. As crazy as it all seems, the puzzle seems to be fitting together perfectly.

One of the downfalls of loosing his job was that we lost our health insurance... YA! FIVE weeks before I'm due with a baby! Luckily, we have applied for Medicaid, so we are probably going to have this baby at no cost to us! This is actually better than with insurance... so again, we are so blessed and grateful for our circumstance. Taylor is a hard worker and I have no doubts that he will find work soon, but it was a little bit of a stressful time for us. How grateful I am that we have a wonderful home to live in, we are going to have a beautiful baby girl in THREE WEEKS (ahhhhhhh!), and we are finally able to spend a little time together before we do so. It's renewed our love for each other again- we haven't spent this much time together since our honeymoon!

I was able to have an amazing baby shower last week that was hosted by my two sisters-in-law Ashley and Brittney and my sister Makenzie. It was wonderful! I am overwhelmed with gratitude towards my friends and family. My mom, sister in law Carly, grandma, my niece Navee, and Taylor's mom Julie came from California. It was wonderful! All the amazing girls in my ward also chipped in on a group gift (that i didn't even ask for) and got us our carseat! What a huge financial burden lifted! We also got a pack-n-play from my aunt and cousins and my mom got us our stroller. We have all the majoy things pretty much covered, and we didnt have to pay for it. What a blessing!!!

Anyways, I am grateful to my husband and my family for all they do for me. I am so grateful to be blessed and trusted by the Lord to be a mother and I hope that I can step up to the challenge. I am thankful to have been so comforted and to have a feeling of peace amidst all the chaos in the last month. I can't wait to meet Harley, and I can't wait to meet the challenges and joys that come from being a mother and our own little family. I love knowing that everything happens for a reason. I'm reminded of Joseph Wirthlin's talk in conference a few years ago right before he died, "Come what may, and love it."

more baby-ness!

2010-12-08T18:49:00.000-08:00

So ive been trying to be better with posting, but im not great at it yet. i have one more day left of school!!! and then im done until tuesday next week when i have three finals. ill be glad when its over! anyways, in baby news, im now 25 and a half weeks, my most recent picture is 24 weeks. i will post that later...

so i went to the dr a week ago today, and in the first 5 months i gained 10 pounds all together, and last week when i saw him for my 6th month check up, i get on the scale, and what happens... I GAINED 8 POUNDS in FOUR WEEKS!!! BAHHHH!!! i almost doubled what i gained in 5 MONTHS in ONE! it was a little difficult to swallow, but such is pregnant life, eh?

anyways, i also got my baby girl's bedding!!! its so cute and i love it! i was looking everywhere online and it was back ordered till march--- that just wont do since shes due in march! but anyways, when i went to california for thanksgiving, my cousin saw the bedding in a store for 40% off because it was the last set and it was the display!!! i was sooo happy! we rushed there and got it!! its called 'poppy' from cotton tales. anyways, we are thrilled!!!

i cant wait till next thursday! taylor and i will be driving home to california for the holidays! taylor unfortunately has to come back and work christmas eve and christmas day, so he will drive back himself on the 23rd, but i will be staying until the 1st or 2nd of january. cant wait! i love spending time with the family in the warm california weather! (even if its 'cold' there, its still at least a 30 degree difference from here!)

poppy bedding set: (i bought a black crib too!)

this is me at 24 weeks... i sent this picture to my husband and he told me i was sexy. love that man!

This is baby girl HARLEY NOEL!! isnt she so cute?!

this is me at 21 and a half weeks: (as a brunette)

So if you didnt catch my subtle hint above: were naming our baby girl

HARLEY NOEL

my grandpa owns a harley davidson shop, and my little sisters middle name is noel, so there you have it. harley noel. hope you all love it as much as we do! :)

Oh hello blog, nice to see you again!

2010-10-28T21:40:00.000-07:00

Ok people, listen. I am well aware that I am a slacker blogger. I know this, you know this, its no surprise. im lazy. im so lazy i decided to not capitilize or add commas or apostraphes where they go after just a couple of sentences. deal with it. i have a reason why i havent posted pictures though. taylor and i happen to own a piece of crap computer. its actually a very nice computer, but i got a piece of crap virus last year, and everything has gone down hill from there. one day the sound stopped working, then my computer stopped accepting my picture discs, and i had to upload them through a jump drive. well, with a fantastic streak of luck i seem to have with this stupid thing, i lost that jump drive. so here we are. 3 months later FINALLY posting. but, the brilliant person i am, i uploaded pictures to my facebook via cell phone and i just had an epiphone

3 minutes ago. save those to my computer and update the blog. YAY!

well, in my last post, i talked about changes, well i failed to mention a tiny little life altering scary as crap change- IM PREGNANT! i knew then, but i wasnt 12 weeks, and too nervous to go way public, so here it is. im now 19 and a half weeks and LOVING IT! (minus the few times ive barfed, the constant nausea, the hate hate relationship i have with food, the constant exhaustion, the mood swings-taylors personal favorite, and my personal favorite- the body hair increase. um sick. happy trails are for boys! not my cute pregnant belly. oh the joys of pregnancy!) im still sick, yes. im waiting for this supposed "amazing second trimester" where you arent sick, you get cravings, you love food, you arent bloody sick, and you have these bursts of energy to help you be a wonderful little housewife... well my husband can attest, i havent hit that yet. i cleaned YESTERDAY for the first time! a deep clean. so theres an improvement! took 5 months, but improvements my friends.

PS- theres one more thing i forgot to mention, which those of you who know me, know that i am very open and am not embarrassed about anything. if you get embarrassed for me, or dont have a crude sense of humor, skip right to the pictures and go on merrily to your next blog stop. so here it goes.... i have a severe farting problem. now, i know all of us have this problem on occasion, however, this is something i have lost complete control over! it has gotten so bad my husband asks me several times a day, "lauren, can you please stop?" (if any of you know my husband, he could truly care less about anything and occasional farts around each other were part of our daily routine.) the second i sit down (my favorite is in the public bathrooms at school), there it goes. and these are loud, and sound forced my friends, but lo they are NOT. they are just as surprising to me as the person in the next stall thats probably recording it on their cell phone and sharing with all of their friends at this very moment. walking down steps, laying down, wherever- it just happens. i used to be quite skilled in the art of simply holding, or just professionally making no noise at all. not anymore. and just last week i was reading in "what to expect when expecting" and every month is says, direct quote, 'this month you will notice increased flatulance.' AWESOME. only, four months to go. poor taylor.

now that i have completely mortified my mother, here are some wonderful little pictures for you:

me at almost 16 weeks

GIRL!!!!!

another probably slightly innapropriate story (its short i promise) we were at the drs office finding out the sex of the baby and she said "its a girl!" taylor said, "so theres no chance of it being a boy then, right?" she said," see those three dots by the arrow in the picture? those are labias forming. no chance"
so for all you skeptics out there, there you have it. GIRL. and we couldnt be more thrilled.

we have our 20 week checkup next monday, november 1st. now that i figured out my picture situation, we will be giving you an update on the babys health thus far. this is a big one and pretty scary for me. i just hope she is developing wonderfully. she is so amazing and i love her so much already. as much humor as i shared with you before, i want you to know i truly do love being pregnant, i just feel like you gotta laugh at the crappy stuff that can sometimes come with it. i dont want you all thinking im miserable and hate it because i really dont. im so blessed to have this perfect being growing in my belly and being able to raise her with the love of my life. how incredible!
one more story (super short!) another reason why i love my baby girl: taylor hadnt felt her move yet, and she was kicking (this was last week) he put his hand on me and couldnt feel anything. i said, well maybe put your head on my stomach and you can hear her? (ya, i know, just wanted to make the poor kid feel better ok?) as soon as he did, she kicked him right in the face. hahaha. love this girl. things are gonna be great and i cant wait!

Changes Changes Changes

2010-07-04T21:16:00.000-07:00

I am so sorry I haven't posted in a couple of months besides what I posted a few minutes ago. I have been working non stop for the last month and a half and I havent even had a second to load pictures and update everyone on our wonderful little life...
I started a job in March this year doing laser hair removal at American Laser Centers, which I have absolutely LOVED, however, it has been super challenging to juggle life, the salon, and my job. I literally haven't seen anyone in a long time, but such is life right? Taylor works full time at Provo Canyon School still, he has worked there a year and a half now and he has enjoyed it thus far, but he is also a full time student, so as you can imagine, we NEVER see each other. I will work a 9-7 shift and then do hair from 7:30-9 sometimes, and he mostly works the 3-11 shift, so we do not see each other until late at night, if I'm not already in bed...
I decided to go see a counselor at UVU to see how much schooling I have done, and how much I need. I have 41 credits and all I need is 60 for my Associates in Social Science. I was originally planning on getting my bachelor's degree in Social Work, but we would like to start a FAMILY, so I don't want to open the Bachelor Degree door just yet. Because of school starting I decided to quit my laser hair removal job and just continue on the path of school and growing my in-house salon. I feel so much weight lifted from this decision. My last day is JULY 24th!!! I'm so excited about it too, because Taylor took off the 2nd summer block of school, so we will be going to LAKE POWELL with his mom and step dad from the 24th through the 30th. WOOO HOOOO!!! Taylor will also be done with his pre-reqs for the nursing program this fall, so he will apply next winter...who knows where we will be going after that?!
SOOOO..... all in all, lots of changes.... Starting school (again), quitting ONE of my jobs, going on some fun summer vacations, starting a family, nursing school.... ahhhhh.
I CANT WAIT!

Navee is ONE!!!

2010-07-04T21:08:00.001-07:00

Believe it or not, Navee is ONE! I can't believe it's already been one whole year. Taylor and I have been so blessed to have lived with her for the first year of her life and to be such a big part of it. We would find ourselves excited to come home everyday to see her and play with her. I have grown quite attatched!! Unfortunately Jimy and Carly moved four days after her birthday, so we don't get to see her everyday. The house is quiet and lonely and we miss our favorite niece... :( Shes so freaking CUTE!!!

Makenzie's Graduation!

2010-07-04T20:52:00.000-07:00

I am aware I haven't posted in a while... My apologies.

Makenzie has officially graduated high school! It was so weird to be back especially because I saw several people there that I went to high school with, which was weird because we graduated 6 years ago. It was crazy to think it's been that long!!! I'm so proud of her and all that she has and is currently accomplishing...

I don't know if any of you know, but Makenzie tried out for Biggest Loser and unfortunately did NOT make it, however the casting producers loved her so much they sent her video to another producer who was doing a similar show and he picked her! I'm proud to announce Makenzie will have her own one hour episode on MTV sometime next year to document her weight loss journey!!! She has a personal trainer that comes to the house and works out with her anywhere from 2-7 HOURS a DAY!!! When I went home for her graduation, I actually did a couple of workouts with her that were sooooo hard! It was so fun though, and were so excited for her! She has been filimg for 5 weeks, and the camera crews happened to be there while I was down and Makenzie forced me to work out with her while the cameras were rolling.... soooooo embarrassing! I hope the workout doesn't make it on TV. And so you all know, I am in TERRIBLE shape, so it was a challenge. Luckily the bootcamp we did the next day was not filmed...

Makenzie has lost 27 pounds so far in 5 weeks. She is doing amazing and on her way to her goal. She is supposed to loose 100 pounds by the end of the summer!!! I will keep everyone updated as to when the show is on and her progress. She is an incredible person and I love her soooo much!!!

Anniversary and Easter

2010-04-18T21:12:00.000-07:00

HAPPY EASTER!!! I woke up early and hid his Easter basket and he found it immediately. He had been waiting for over a week for his special made and ordered jersey and I got home before him when it was delivered and I hid it from him. He was very happy to get it, but very annoyed I hid it...

Morning face!

We went to Vegas for our Anniversaey and stayed there for three nights. It was WONDERFUL! We saw the O show for our Anniversary and hung out on the strip. HAPPY ONE YEAR TO US!!

The Mentalist!!!

family pictures

2010-04-05T12:40:00.000-07:00

I like this one, but we kind of look stretched... our faces look kinda square

This one is Taylor's favorite

I like this one

The whole family!

In March, we had a nice little family reunion and we all got together for the first time in 5 years! ( I've only been part of the family for one though..) Anyways, we were able to celebrate Ethan's first birthday and we also got to watch Elliot be blessed! It was so fun to see everyone that we haven't seen in so long! Lauren, Gary, Kove, Jeremy, and Chris all came down from Idaho and Kelli, Kevin, Trevor, Gavin, and Averi, and Julie and Ken all came from California, so it was so nice to all be together!! Julie and Ken were nice enough to pay for family pictures! It was so fun. Here are a few of the pictures (there weren't too many of me and Taylor), so here they are! I have mixed feelings about them, tell me what you think...

Happy Surprise 80's Dodgeball Party to Whitney!!

2010-03-05T18:35:00.000-08:00

So one of our very best friends in the whole wide world, Whitney, has her birthday on the same wonderful day that we got married... In fact, she was such a great sport to be a bridesmaid at our wedding on her own special day! I didn't even have the decency to tell her on our wedding day Happy Birthday, and I felt sooo bad about it i texted her on our honeymoon and called her right when i got home to wish her a Happy Birthday from the Bridezilla!

Anyways, her cute, creative husband Devon decided to throw her a surprise birthday party, but not just any party- AN 80's DODGEBALL PARTY!!!! It was amazing and so much fun! We were thrilled to share our Anniversary with her and we concluded after all was said and done, that was the funnest thing we did on our big day! hahaha. I owed her a big one from last year's events!

Happy Anniversary to US!!!

2010-03-05T17:53:00.000-08:00

Well everyone, believe it or not, it has been one whole wonderful, funny, busy, hard, incredible, busy, changing, adjusting, spiritual, did I mention busy, and most of all FUN year of our lives. (well at least mine, I don't know about Taylor...) It is soooo crazy to think that it has been one year! By the way, this one year anniversary was on February 27th, I am a slacker, I know this. But what a rewarding thing marriage is! Heavenly Father knew what he was doing for sure. Life is a wonderful and precious thing and I couldn't think of anything better than sharing it with your best friend, and the love of your life. Taylor is such an incredible blessing in my life and I am so grateful for the sacrifices he makes daily for me to be happy! He is a hard worker that really wants the best for our little family. I sure hope he sticks around and puts up with all my crap! :)

We had the privilege of being best friends for close to 11 years before we got married, and what a blessing that has been in our lives. We literally know each other in and out and Taylor knows exactly what I'm thinking by just looking at me. We absolutely are each other's other half. In the past year, we have been working our butts off (I work two jobs and Taylor works full-time and goes to school full-time as well.) We are just pushing through this so we can get a real life, a house, start a family, and move on as fast as we possibly can, and by doing so, we rarely see each other. This is probably good for us, because it makes uo cherish every moment we have together.I am the luckiest girl in the world! I truly could not be any happier than I already am.

So... we had already decided that we wouldn't do anything for Valentine's Day because (well, lets be honest, kind of a lame made up holiday anyways) AND we have way more to celebrate! OUR ANNIVERSARY!!! So I celebrated Valentine's Day in New York with the girls instead... Anyways, since were not dating anymore, Taylor thinks he doesn't have to be creative and do cutsey things for me anymore, so he deemed me in charge of our Anniversary activities.

SOOOO... I started out the morning with bright and early haircuts to his Dad, step mom, and 4 siblings (and I colored his step-moms hair). Got some good hard-earned money to start the day off. We then went a got full-body one-hour massages from my amazing friend Betsy. They were INCREDIBLE!!! I meant to put a roast in the crock pot for dinner and slow cook it all day, but I forgot to in the rush of haircuts, so I put it in on high at about 2, we ate at 6:30 or so, and it was tough as can be. More like roast jerky. I have never messed up on crockpot roast (in fact, I didn't think it was possible, but I found a way!) I tried to be romantic and set the table withcandles and the Pina Colada cups we kept from our honeymoon cruise, but the Martinelli's leaked right through the bottom, so plastic cups it is!

Then, we went to Whitney's surprise 80's dodgeball birthday party! (more to come about that!) SOOOO FUN! and I happened to not take pictures of anything except the party, so thats that.

All in all, a great day! The real celebration will happen in two weeks when we will be going to Las Vagas for Taylor's spring break so stay tuned....

More New York Pictures...

2010-03-05T17:36:00.000-08:00

I totally forgot to mention that it was FREEZING! It was probably about 30 degrees, but with the wind chill, it felt like 15!!! just thought i would add that in!

PS- I totally couldn't pass up that last picture!!! hahaha

NEW YORK!!!

2010-03-05T17:23:00.001-08:00

So i have been a major slacker in writing on the blog these days, and I apologize! I have had an extremely busy month, but it has gone by fast, so that makes it not as stressful! I had an amazing opportunity to go to New York from February 11th through February 18th with my best buddies! GIRL TRIP! It is rare that all 6 of us can ever get together, so this was an awesome opportunity. We saw Ground Zero, Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, the Met, the biggest Macy's in the world, the Statue of Liberty, Mary Poppins Broadway musical, WICKED (12th row center I might add), Times Square, figured out the subway, ate Pinkberry and Pizza everyday, and of course HAD A BLAST!!! This was BY FAR the longest I have ever been away from Taylor, so it was a struggle and needless to say, I was more than ready to come home when I hit the 7 day mark... Here are some pics that we were able to get while I was there. I LOVE YOU GIRLS FO EVA!!!

Christmas!!!

2010-01-09T21:41:00.001-08:00

So for Christmas, I'm obviously a proud Aunt and I took pictures mostly of Navee! Isn't she so DANG cute!!! Anyways, Taylor worked on Christmas day and we both worked on Christmas Eve too (crappy i know) but anyways, we didnt open Christmas presents together until 4:15 in the afternoon. I watched a Christmas Story on TBS three rimes by the time he got home- I LOVE that movie! As you can see, I got him a TV. He was quite spoiled this year because not only did he get that, he got an XBox from my mom, so it was a great Christmas for him. He loved it and we definitely enjoy the upgrade from the ugly box to an awesome high def LCD flat screen!

Disneyland and California

2010-01-09T21:28:00.000-08:00

The crew at the Heeg's house.

You can't see it, but this when it was snowing after the fireworks show.

Tea Cups. Barf.

Haunted Mansion was the longest wait- 1 hr 10 min. not too bad for the week of Christmas

So for Christmas this year, we were spending it with Taylor's Dad's family in Utah, but the week before, our good friends were getting married, so we got to go down to California for a few days. It was crammed with quite a busy schedule but we got to see lots of our friends and we went to Disneyland as a present to each other for Christmas! My mom got me a camera and let me open it early so I could take pictures at Disneyland. We went with our really good friends Art and Jen and it was sooooo much fun!!!

LOST CAMERA!!!

2009-11-30T21:27:00.000-08:00

So on Friday this week, I flew down to California by myself -so sad! to be with my family for my cousin Scott's wedding in LA on Saturday. My parents both celebrate their birthdays in November very conveniently within a week of each other, so us kids decided to give them a combined present of taking them to Medieval Times! It was soooo much fun! We paid extra and got them into the Knighting ceremony where they wer both "dubbed" by the king. Well, I took pictures of them of course, and then I went back to stand with my family. About 5 minutes later, my brother Bryan asked if he could see the pictures and my camera was GONE! I usually am soooo weird about my camera and very aware of where it is at all times, so I seriously have no idea what happened. I really don't think I dropped it. We all think that someone reached into my purse and just took it because it was a hige crowd of people. I'm not sure, I could have dropped it, but I always wear it around my wrist because it has a string attatched to it. I don't know, but I know that I'm very very sad! I can't really blog any pictures until I have a new camera. Thankfully, Christmas is coming up and I have a very good husband and a very good mother...... hopefully they will do the right thing :)

My Dad's Book!

2009-11-26T13:57:00.000-08:00

So my dad has this new kick of writing novels and then going ahead and getting them published... what the random? I KNOW! But he's always been very creative and witty as most of you know, so I think it's awesome! This particular novel is a bunch of stories that are about my Dad and his random and hilarious hospital and health stories he has experienced throughout his life- they're all true and pretty dang funny. The novel is officially published and hard cover! So go buy one to support my dad and to get some good laughs out of some great reading! He is also publishing a children's Christmas book, and he has another one of all of our favorite family stories coming out as well. We are all anxiously awaiting the arrival of those as well!

I am so proud of my Dad and I truly think he is such an amazing person. Today is his birthday, so show some love and support and get yourself a copy!

If you go to www.publishamerica.com and go to the Online Bookstore tab at the top, then click on humor, and on page 5, his book is on the bottom left hand side.

INCREDIBLE Halloween!!!

2009-11-01T18:46:00.000-08:00

So this year for Halloween, we went to a party at the green room and me and Taylor were Violet and Dash from the Incredibles, Whitney and Devon were Suzanne Sommers and the thigh master, and Brandon and Julie were Mario and Luigi. It was sooo much fun! Taylor actually wanted to wear the spandex for the record-- he was not forced!!!

The Ring...

2009-10-26T21:17:00.001-07:00

So it looks purple in the picture, but they'e supposed to be pink.... Isn't it sooooo PRETTY?!?!?!?!?! I LOVE IT!!!!

Lauren's 23rd Birthday

2009-10-26T20:47:00.000-07:00

He's so cute!

Creme Brule... YUM!

Our awesome view and my special sign!

The McGrath's fish...

So I am very aware that I am late in posting, but this just plain takes so much longer than facebook... anyways, I had the most amazing birthday a girl could ask for! My family was in town for Conference weekend, so we went to McGrath's fish house with the LeDuc's after priesthood session, and it was great food! We went there for king crab legs (yum) but they told us when we ordered that they were out! We were sooo bummed because that was the deciding factor in going there! But they graciously made it up to us by letting us substitute with lobster straight from the tank! It was very yummy... They helped me celebrate my birthday by putting a giant fish on my head and singing happy birthday.

On my real birthday.. Monday the 5th, my parents took me to Mimi's cafe for breakfast and it was great as always. Right when we got home, Taylor couldn't wait any longer, so he gave me my presents... he got me a really cute shirt I liked and then he got me a beautiful right hand ring from Zales that I wanted sooo bad! It has diamonds and 4 pink stones in it too, and pink is my birthstone. It was amazing! Then, we took a very long nap that was sooo wonderful and much needed, and then he took me up to Salt Lake to The Roof restaurant that overlooks temple square and it was the best food of my life. (apparently my birthday is all about the food!) We paid only 8 dollars more and got.....drumroll..... KING CRAB LEGS!!! I got my crab legs after all! And to top it off, they had an all you can eat dessert bar and there was creme brule :) It was sooooo yummy- my favorite dessert.

All in all, best day of my life, second to my wedding day.

I have an amazing husband and I couldn't picture anyone more perfect for me and I can't imagine life without him. I am the luckiest girl on the planet!

MURSE!!!

2009-09-07T20:33:00.000-07:00

For those of you who don't know what a MURSE is, it's a male nurse, and that would be what my husband is going to be in a few years!!! That's right, Taylor had been planning on being a teacher and was taking all of the classes to lead him in that direction; he recently decided that that wasn't for sure what he wanted to do and had been thinking about nursing for a while. We took some time to go over pro's and con's and we decided he would be an amazing nurse and it would greatly benefit our family. He is thinking about going into pediatrics and possibly the NICU and he will be amazing at it! I am grateful to have such an amazing husband!!!

For all of you who have seen Meet the Parents, he is a Gaylord Focker. Hahaha!! He will be an amazing nurse!

PS- Should I get him that action figure??

Park City, UT

2009-08-24T21:43:00.001-07:00

The LeDuc family came up to visit us in Utah and we stayed in Park City at the Marriott Mountainside Condos and it was amazing! We went down the alpine slides, the coaster, and the zipline and it was awesome!! The place has a nice pool that was very warm and 6 hot tubs that are soooo nice. We had so much fun!!

Viva Las Vegas

2009-08-24T21:29:00.001-07:00

We had the opportunity to meet up with our friends in Las Vegas for the Blink 182 concert and just a fun weekend getaway. Kyle, Eric, Whitney, Art, Jen, Cody, Rocky, Brittany, Brandon, Taylor and I all had a blast. We love Vegas!!

California Birthday Parties!!

2009-08-24T21:21:00.001-07:00

We went to California for a nice little getaway. It was awesome! We spent two of the four days at the beach and then we went to our neice Avery's birthday party and had a blast.

4th of July!!!

2009-08-24T21:12:00.000-07:00

Barf ride

haha! green!

HEEELLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOO

Loves

We had our favorite friends from Arizona come and visit us for the weekend and they went to the Center Street festival with us. It was ridiculously hot and we decided to go on a ride and it was a terrible idea. I was dry heaving and Bryce literally turned green. Awful.

Baby!

2009-08-24T21:06:00.000-07:00

Navee was born on June 26, 2009

Proud Aunt and Uncle!

I know it's been a while since we blogged, but here you go! She is alive and well and we love her with all our hearts. What a wonderful little baby and we love living with her!!

Navee's Room!!!

2009-06-24T19:52:00.001-07:00

SOOOOO..... Carly and Jimmy are having a BABY!!!!! her name is Navee (pronounced Navy) and we are sooooo thrilled!!! Carly went to the doctor and found out she will have her Friday! Today is Wednesday! So... the baby is breach as of right now, so she is going in to get the baby averted (turning the baby head down) and if it's successful, they will immeadiately induce her. If the baby doesn't turn then they will give her a C-section, so either way, the baby is here on FRIDAY!!!! YAY!! This is the first niece or nephew by blood to me, so we are all soooooo happy!

Vegas Pictures!

2009-06-24T19:42:00.000-07:00

Bellagio Fountains!

The Garden Room in Bellagio- It was sooo pretty!

The snail was all roses

Chantel, Jarom, Me and Taylor

VEGAS!!!

2009-06-24T10:45:00.000-07:00

So we had the amazing chance to go to Vegas for Taylor's mission buddy's wedding and we got to stay a couple of days since I dont work on Saturdays or Mondays. It was awesome!!! Our friends Jarom and Chantel stayed with us for a night to and we got an amazing time on the strip. We gambled a little and walked around A LOT and definitely watched the Bellagio fountains which were the best! Anyways, I will post pics ASAP!!! (I'm at work right now, so I cant really post them, but I will when I get home...)

Best Friends FO EVA!!!

2009-05-03T20:53:00.001-07:00

We had some BOMB sushi!!!

Taylor decided to climb on the sculptures in the middle od Scottsdale.

We love you FO EVER EVER EVER!!!!

I had to go to Arizona for a Dermalogica Training Seminar for work for a week and we got to spend some time with our great friends Becca and Bryce. They don't get visitors in AZ too often, however they do visit us in Utah and California quite often, so were very excited to get to visit them for a few days. I was in class from 10-5 on Monday through Thursday, but we were able to drive down Saturday, so we had Sunday all day and we spent every night together. We also got to spend time with our good friends Jarom and Chantell and Rue and Shelby that will be married next week! YAY!!!! Thanks for an amazing time guys! We love you all!!!

our wedding collage...

2009-05-03T20:22:00.000-07:00

Our wedding Collage by our amazing Photographer!!!

http://www.melissajewelphotography.com/

enter site--- guest username: penrod password: 15157

then enter you name and email address and look at our pictures!!!

Honeymoon!!!

2009-05-03T19:51:00.000-07:00

The water was freezing!!!

We were told to get bandanas for the horseback rides so we could keep the dust out of our faces.

Cabo!!! SO pretty! I forgot what this was called exactly, but it was the window to two oceans, or something like that. You have the Gulf of Mexico on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other side.

This was our Cruiseship- The Norwegian Star! SOOO FUN!!!

We went on a 7 day cruise for our Honeymoon to Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallarta. It was amazing and we absolutely LOVED IT!!! We went horseback riding in Puerto Vallarta and we got to go bare back on the horses while they swam in the river. It was amazing!

some engagement photos...

2009-02-16T19:31:00.000-08:00

A Six Flags New Year!

2009-01-04T23:50:00.000-08:00

Some pre-New Year's kisses...

We are all superheroes-this picture is a tradition..

Hoodies!

We love our turkey legs!

So, last year a big group of us from college that are best friends decided to meet up for New Years Eve at Six Flags Magic Mountain and we ended up having the best time of our lives! We got in cheap, and alot of us don't see each other very often throughout the year, so we were very glad to spend time together... well, after last year being so awesome, we decided to make it a tradition and carried it over to this year! We had so much fun! Becca and Bryce came over from Arizona, Booty came down from Utah, Christa and Kara came down from Fresno along with Gabe and his brother Christian. The lines were extremely short and we got in every ride we wanted to- some of them a few times! :) Thanks everyone for going, it was good to see you all and we loved starting out our New Year with you!

Christmas in California!!

2009-01-04T23:38:00.000-08:00

Well we had a wonderful Christmas together in California, we hadn't seen each other in about a month and we got TWO WHOLE WEEKS together! It was awesome! We had all of both of our families down together so it was great to be with everyone... We were fortunate enough to go to Disneyland with Taylor's family that lives in Utah and it was so much fun! We both decided that it was the best part of our Christmas vacation- neither of us had been there for a few years, which is a very long time considering we both used to be season pass holders! We had so much fun with his family and it was an awesome Christmas present from them. Thank Mark and Candace!!! :) The weather was amazing and the wait in lines wasn't as bad as we anticipated- the longest we waited was an hour or so which really wasn't too terrible for Christmas break...

Pedicures!!!

2009-01-04T23:05:00.000-08:00

Taylor and I got pedicures in California and they were absolutely amazing!!! Tayor won't admit it but he loved it! A nice relaxing massage leg and foot massage in a back massage chair- what more could you ask for? And of course I had to get a picture of Taylor in there because he would never tell anyone that voluntarily... the poor lady that did Taylor's feet had to dig out a huge ingrown toenail in one of his big toes- Sick! The poor lady dug that thing out for a good 10 minutes and Taylor was very grateful for that... a $15 dollar pedicure is much better than a doctor's visit to get that massive thing out of his foot, right? I think so.

Finals and Happy Holidays

2008-12-08T19:47:00.000-08:00

So, I absolutely hate finals pretty much more than anything in this world! EVER! (that was for becca! haha) But seriously. They are extremely stressful and I think every professor likes to pretend like his or her class is the most important of all so they ALL give you a gigantic workload and it's awful. I'm very glad that it's almost over though, and i guess i can't complain because I haven't really put forth very much effort this semester at all and I'm getting pretty good grades. I have been too distracted and kind of just don't care anymore. I'm very excited to be done! I have 19 credits left until I get to take a break and Taylor can finish his schooling and I will be just working full-time. We are very excited for our future and we are very excited that Christmas break is coming so soon! We will get TWO WHOLE WEEKS together! Yay! And we are gonna take out engagement pictures then too, so I will post those when I get those back. I hope everyone else is doing great with finals and work and looking forward to Christmas as much as we are! HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Christmas Lights at Temple Square

2008-12-03T23:29:00.000-08:00

November 28, 2008

We met up with some of our friends (Becca, Bryce, Lauren, Dani, Andrea, Yoho, Erica, and Sam) to look at the Christmas lights at Temple Square. It was so good to see our friends we hadn't seen in a long time and walk around. Taylor doesn't believe in scarves or mittens, so he was freezing! We had such a fun time!

Happily Engaged!

2008-12-03T22:53:00.000-08:00

On conference weekend 2oo8, Taylor came up to visit in Utah. We started dating early June and became exclusive in the middle of July in between our many vacations--ok MY many vacations-- EFY counseling, family trips, etc. I left to go back up to Utah for school on August 24, and Taylor and I didn't see each other until conference weekend-- 6 weeks! That's AWFUL! Anyways, he came up and visited for his mission reunion and my 22nd birthday (Oct 5th!) It was Friday the 3rd and Taylor had the whole night planned- dinner, mission reunion, horse and carriage ride around Temple Square in Salt Lake-- I was for sure gonna get proposed to on the carriage ride right?! That's what I was thinking anyway...

We get to his mission reunion and President and Sister Finnigan start talking about how a mission companion is preparation for an eternal companionship- this is what all Mission Presidents talk about at mission reunions right? Then he says, "I would like to turn the time over to Elder Penrod to share a few words." I thought this was a bit weird, but whatever. Taylor stands up and says " I'm glad i could be here this evening and share a few words with you.. actually I wanted to introduce my girlfriend Lauren to all of you." I wanted to kill him! He grabbed my hand and made me stand up. He then said "And I actually have something to ask her.." as he opened the lapel of his suit coat. I immediately freaked out, turned beet red and started to say "Are you fr.. Are you SERIOUS?!" ( I held my tongue in efforts to not offend his mission president, so I decided to refrain from saying 'are you freaking serious') and he said "Lauren LeDuc, will you marry me?" Of course I agreed and i was so surprised my hands were covering my face, so he had to pull my hand down to him to put the ring on my finger. It was the best and most embarrassing moment of my life. He definitely surprised me! There were probably 60-70 people crammed into a tiny relief society room so it was extremely hot- I was sweating a red beforehand- the embarrassment definitely did NOT help! I told him I thought he was going to propose on the carriage ride for sure and he said "We're definitely NOT going on a carriage ride. I just told you that to throw you off." I was kind of sad about that, but it's ok. I'm going to marry my best friend and I have never been happier in my life!