WE DID IT

WE DID IT!

We survived our first semester of medical school. 

Dave passed all of his classes with flying colors and even got a few Os.

(outstandings)
Shockingly enough I see him more than I did when he was doing his undergrad at BYU.
He loves the knowledge he is gaining and even though a lot of it is over my head I love hearing him tell me all about it. He gets so excited.
He was in classes or studying from 8 am to 8 pm most days. And when it was a week with tests it was usually more.
But he always made time to come home and be with me and chubbies and we always had date night.
He has been so dedicated and hardworking!

I couldn't be more proud of him

and I couldn't be more excited for him to have 3 weeks of freedom to do whatever the heck he wants with himself over christmas break.

He deserves it.
I have been blessed to make lots of good girlfriends whose husbands are students as well and we kept each other company doing crafts and going to the park with their kids and going for walks etc.

The semester went by so quick, we are hopeful that the next 7 semesters will fly by just as fast.

Christmas

My boss asked me yesterday if mormons celebrate Christmas.

This question caught me way off guard and I quickly replied "YES"

and explained that the full name of our church is

The Church of JESUS CHRIST of latter day Saints.

That "mormon" is just a nick name because we believe in the Book of Mormon.

We then talked about missions, where the chapel is in our town and a few other things.

I just want to clarify that I believe in Jesus Christ. I know that he was born in a manger and raised my his earthly parents Mary and Joseph but is the son of God.

He lived his life as an example to all of us.

He suffered for my sins.

The greatest gifts I have ever received and will ever receive are from my Heavenly Father and his son Jesus Christ.

And Christmas is my favorite holiday because I reflect on those gifts and my wonderful Savior's birth.

Thanksgiving Highlights

Dave and I spent our Thanksgiving break in St.Louis with the whole Holt clan. 

There were 13 adults, 16 neices and nephews in one house for one week. 

A recipe for memories.

 Here are some highlights from our week.

 Bon Fires in the clearing.

Watching Grandma & Grandpa give tractor rides all day and night.

Hanging out with our cute nephews and nieces.

Brushing the goats, watching them attack Angie for the banana she brought.

Cage fighting at the Zoo with uncle David.

 Funny faces, cute nieces.

 these just make me laugh 

 hehe haha

 more Zoo pics

Penguins

Dave calling the Bears. haha

Eating at Pappy's...our favorite BBQ place in the country.

Playing Dodgeball and milk jug lacrosse at the church on a rainy day

Making gingerbread houses....well gingerbread mansions really.

Getting makeovers from our wonderful nieces.

 Talent Show. 

Our rendition of rolling in the deep by Adele.

 Breakdancing.

Musicals.

Dancing and singing.

Dave reminding his parents that he is still the baby. 

but one of my favorite parts of the week was each time a little niece or nephew came to me to give Chubbies a hug and talk to him through my belly.
We loved every minute of it. 

I'm so thankful to have married into such a wonderfully large, loving and fun family.

Labor & Delivery Class 1

So tonight Dave and I headed to the hospital to attend our first labor and delivery class. 

Chubbies kicked and punched the whole way through it. 

Our teacher Paula is really funny. She has been working at the hospital delivering babies for 38 years....so she kinda knows what she's talking about and was up for any questions and have really realistic answers. 

She also has no pride lol.

When it came to finding positions to help me deal with labor pains and having Dave coach me through them....We Failed. Dave just kept saying hilarious things in my ear and I spent each 60 second contration trying not to giggle out loud and disturb everyone else's concentration. Oh how I love that man. 

We are also on board for having music playing while I'm giving labor and are going to spend the next few weeks making a killer mix tape. 

The highlight of the evening.....watching my very first birthing video....I'm not going to lie...my mouth was open the whole time. I was a little overwhelmed. But when the lady got to hold her baby for the first time I felt the emotions come over me...I cried the car ride home. 

I'm just so excited for the moment I get to hold my baby boy and am willing to go through anything to get there. 

Chubbies you are so worth it....and so loved. 

At 28 weeks reality is setting in. I'm feeling great. We've settled on a name, but love calling our baby by his nick name ,chubbies, for now, so we'll wait and use his name when he's born. 

I can't believe my 1st two trimesters have all ready come and gone. 

chubby toes

I'm 24 weeks and I have started getting swollen ankles, toes and legs....

I didn't think this would happen so soon.

I thought I had a good month or so til this would happen.

My doctor said I'm just one of those lucky moms.

We can't help but laugh at my chubby little toes.

Lots of elevating going on over here at the Holt House.

October

October was a fun month.

We carved pumpkins and watched a scary movie. Too scary of a movie.

  

We took our punkin' to the pumpkin patch.

(He's growing strong and he's a mover)

Enjoyed the great fall weather.

(These are our awsome poses)

Walked through the apple orchards

decorated a bit...not much

This horribly scary spider decor was sent to us from Dave's mom.

(I hate spiders and swear this one is cursed because spiders keep showing up in our apartment after I hung it.)

We were pretty lame this Halloween and didn't dress up at all. It was quite a shame but with me working and dave in med school we are both equally exhausted and all we wanted was a relaxing night at home on Halloween together. 

Which was WONDERFUL. 

We did buy Chubbies his first cowboy hat that he can wear from 0-12 months.

I'm hoping this is his daily costume lol.

The picture doesn't really do it justice. It's just so small and adorable.

Hope you all had a wonderful October. 

We're thankful to be one month closer to meeting our baby boy.

HUGE

It dawned on me again this morning...that baby boy has potential to be a HUGE baby

We have 2 grandpas that weighed 13 lbs at birth

a daddy who was almost 11 lbs 

All Holt men are now Giants.

and a mommy who was almost 10 lbs

and not too short herself.

Chubbies has a femur growing 3 weeks ahead of schedule...so he's going to be tall.

So I'm wondering how big will my belly need to get to make enough room for Chubbies to grow?

I'm feeling large and in charge and still have 4 months to go!!!

So how big will our baby boy be????

second tri-mester Happenings.

I love my husband soooooooo much.

Which is why I feel so awful that I'm making him freeze every night.

I am just so hot at night that I have a fan blowing on me and the air conditioning on, even though it's only around 40-50 degrees outside.

I think it's time to whip out our blankets for him to get snuggly and warm in at night.

This morning before my shower we just giggled at my body and how it is resembling humpty dumpty a little bit these days. My bum and my belly are getting HUGE!

Today I plan to organize all of our clothes and shelves in our bedroom to make room for chubbies' clothes and diapers etc.

(I can't wait til we move to Peoria this summer so I can decorate a nursery for lil man)

We are getting even more excited for chubbies!!

I've learned I was really spoiled off the bat that Dave got to feel Chubbies kick so early and that I felt him so often and powerfully. He went a whole day before kicking this week and I got so worried, but he's just must have worn himself out. Our baby boy is so considerate though, because I had a talk with him that night and told him how worried it was making me and that "it helps mommy to not get scared when she can feel you kick" and immediately after I got done saying that He gave me a good big kick.

Our lol Boy is such a good listener.

Oh I'm more in love with him every day!

He's really movin' now

Tonight we enjoyed a nice night out with our friends Mackenzie and Andrew.

Another fun married couple in the med program here.

We went to BBQ and then to the best frozen custard place in town.

All night long Chubbies had been moving around a lot.

I had never felt him moving like that before.

It was really distinguishable. Not to be mistaken with gas or something like that.

I KNEW it was Chubbies!

So when we were sitting at the tables enjoying our yummy custard I thought I would see if Dave could feel the baby.

I just grabbed his hand and put it on my belly while he was chatting away with Andrew and he turned and looked right up at me and said

"I just felt him"

We were both actually really surprised.

Neither of us have felt him from the outside yet.

It was pretty exciting.

Since we were out with friends we didn't really make a big deal about it, but as we drove home we couldn't stop smiling and talking about what had happened.

I just wanted to blog about it so we remembered our first time daddy felt Chubbies move.

I'm still getting used to this whole, having a baby moving inside of me thing, but I am learning to love it pretty quickly....even though it is a really strange feeling.

What's up with the nick name?

I've had a lot of people ask me why we call our baby Chubbies, so here ya go.

This summer our Nephew Mason, who is about 2 I think, was walking around the kitchen saying "I unt chubbies". Dave and I couldn't understand what he was talking about so he kept repeating it over and over again. 

"I unt Chubbies, I unt Chubbies"

First of all you have to understand that the way Mason talks, everything he says is so cute. 

We figured it was some kind of food he was asking for so Dave opened up the fridge and looked around and saw some strawberries and held them out to Mason and asked "Chubbies?"

To which Mason got a huge grin and said "Yea" in his adorable way.

Dave and I couldn't stop laughing about how cute this experience was and we kept imitating Mason saying "I unt Chubbies" all day long. 

When I got on the computer that night I was looking up how big my baby was and it said that at 9 weeks its the size of a strawberry. 

So our baby from that point on was called Chubbies.

my favorite is when we say our prayers at night and Dave prays 

"for Chubbies to keep growing healthy and strong". 

Makes me smile every time.

 Now we call him Chubbies, Chubs, Chubby Wub, The Chubster. 

LOL.

 I can't really picture us calling him anything else at this point....even after he comes I'd imagine we'll still be calling him that. 

20 weeks

A year ago today We were sitting in a Doctors office crying because we couldn't see a heart beat for our little one, they had gone to heaven.

I will always love my little angel in heaven.

This morning I took the time to thank my Heavenly Father for all the Love He has for me and my little family. I felt it a year ago and I felt it today. 

(and many many moments in between)

I haven't taken any moment of this pregnancy for granted.

This afternoon I got to see my Chubbies with a wonderfully healthy and strong heartbeat. 

I couldn't help but cry when I saw the little flutter of chubs big ol heart. 

The nurse looked at me and said "we haven't even gotten to the good stuff" lol

I love seeing this beautiful little baby so much!

Look how big Chubbies is getting!

and IT'S A BOY...
(our initial instincts were right on)

...a BIG boy. He's got really long legs and HUGE hands and feet apparently. 

He measures over 2 weeks ahead of schedule for height, so he will be tall.

It's perfect for his future BYU football career. 

Dave and I could not be more EXCITED about our little guy.

look at his cute toes.

giving us the thumbs up.

One other highlight was watching Chubbies have a big YAWN

and wiggle around like crazy

Just adorable. 

February will be here before we know it. 

I just keep picturing a little mini Dave in my life and I can't wait.

I'm the luckiest woman in the world!!

Julia

My sweet niece Julia got baptized a couple of weeks ago and Dave and I were so fortunate to be able to go and spend the weekend with her and her family to celebrate up near Chicago. 

From the day I joined the Holt family Julia has made me feel like the luckiest Aunt in the world.

She will climb up on my lap and snuggle and give me the biggest hugs.

She calls me on the phone just to talk.

She is just the most darling loving little girl.

Julia asked me to speak at her baptism.

I was so touched.

Her baptism was wonderful and she was so happy all weekend.

I'm so proud of you Julia and the wonderful choices you're making in life.

You are BEAUTIFUL inside and out.

16.5 weeks

I have been feeling pretty good as of late, but last night was the WORST. I had a nightmare that was horrifying and I woke up starving...so I ate some olives and watermelon, which sounds disgusting now but sounded so good at the time...then when I went to lay back down I felt a rush of awfulness and ran to the bathroom to then proceeded to throw up everything and anything. 

And to make matters worse I peed my pants. 

Its official. I have no control over my bladder when I am throwing up.

AWSOME!

It took me some time to fall back a sleep after. I still was not feeling very good.

Which gave me a lot of time to think...and to thank my Heavenly Father.

Most women probably think I am crazy but this is what I asked for. 

I worry a lot about my baby. I try not to. But I can't ever help but feel anxiety before each doctors appointment that I'm going to show up and they are going to tell me that we lossed another baby. 

So I have been praying to Heavenly Father to help me stay calm and keep me reassured by keeping me sick. 

And as I laid back in bed last night I couldn't help but cry and be thankful that Heavenly Father blessed me last night by being sick. It helped me to calm myself and know that my baby was fine and that I didn't need to be afraid to go to the doctor again.

I felt so loved and comforted. 

And today's appointment was GREAT. 

I heard the little Chubbies heartbeat in the 150s. 

I learned I have gained a whopping 8 lbs...YAY!

(only I just look fat not pregnant lol story of my life)

I got all my questions answered by my wonderful NP.

I passed all my screenings with flying colors.

And the greatest news of all...We scheduled our ultrasound to find out if Chubbies is a boy or girl and it just so happens to be the day after Dave's Birthday...I can't think of a better way to spend his birthday week than getting to see our baby.

So I'm back to bed now, I'm exhausted because I got no sleep last night. But I feel so eternally grateful for the past 12 hours and that they showed me how much my Heavenly Father loves me and Chubbies.

Maine

Well, sadly our reunion with the Holt Clan ended and we headed back to Dave's parents house where we would be staying for a few weeks until medical school started.

These two nieces came back with us to Grandma's house where we played for a week until Uncle Dave and I flew them back to Maine to their parents and to spend a week exploring Maine.

We got off the plane and met up with this little cutie (our nephew) and his mom and went straight to the Beach.

Maine is beautiful.

then we went to what people in Maine call "camp" but it's really a lake house.

We enjoyed lots of time swimming, boating, jet skiing, roasting hot dogs and marshmellows and lots of fishing.

Dave, his sister and brother in law did a triathalon one morning while I stayed home all snuggled in bed with three little cuties watching cartoons and eating crackers.

(morning sickness isn't so bad with nieces and nephews to help you smile through it)

We spent a day in Bar Harbor

Just goofing around and trying lobster ice cream.

I can't even remember all of the other beaches and towns we went to but they were all gorgeous.

To top it all off we had some delicious Maine Lobster in the backyard.

My only regret is that I was sick a lot of the time growing my baby so I didn't feel as fun and adventurous as I usually am...but we had a wonderful time regardless and hope to go back soon.

Ozarks

We reluctantly left Cali and drove back to Utah. We rested there for a night and then started our BEAST of a rode trip to Illinois with all of our things.

We made it safely to Dave's parent's house and before we unpacked anything we left for Dave's annual family reunion at the Trout Lodge in the Ozarks. 

Our rooms overlooked this lake. 

The highlights for me this week were 

1. Finding out I was pregnant (YAY)

2. Spending time with all of the these fun people

3. Watching my family zip line

There goes Dave again.

Even mama Holt tried it

and she definitely had the most style.