Our Big Announcement!

I could not be more grateful to be able to say that we are pregnant! I feel so blessed and so excited for this new little addition to join our family. We found out on Thanksgiving Day while we were down in Southern Utah. I knew I was going to take a pregnancy test that morning so I was having a hard time sleeping. Sky and I were both hopeful that this was going to be it for us, but we weren't naive to the fact that things don't always happen the way you hope. I took the test and we waited together for the results. When the word "Pregnant" popped up I almost lost it. We were both so excited and also pretty nervous, considering what had happened with our two previous pregnancies, I had to do my best to just kick out the negative thoughts. I felt confident that this little baby would be healthy and just tried to hold onto that. We were so incredibly happy.
  We had our first ultrasound at 5 weeks, 5 days and everything looked awesome! We knew that it was probably still too early to see a heartbeat but we were really hoping to see one for our own reassurance. And there it was! Our beautiful little babes heartbeat. I started crying and couldn't believe it was happening. Our doctor was awesome and had us come in pretty much each week to keep us calm and check on the little one. Each appointment has gone perfectly and our baby is growing like a weed (a beautiful and wonderful weed of course). At our last ultrasound, the sweet little one was jumping! He/she would crouch down and spring back up. It was one of the coolest things I have ever seen.
    We are 12 weeks pregnant now and I am so excited to be heading out of the first trimester. This pregnancy has been a lot harder than my pregnancy with Sophie. The morning sickness has been pretty rough but still I am so grateful and am happily nauseous! I always told everyone I couldn't wait for the day that I was puking my guts out, and those days have come in full strength! Baby is about two inches long, from crown to bum and is about the size of a plum. My little belly is starting to pop, which makes me so excited. I can't wait till I can feel this guy or gal move. Sophie loves to talk to the baby and insists that it is a girl. She tells everyone that she is a big sister and there is a baby in my belly. She is going to be the best sister and an awesome helper for mommy.
   It has been quite the journey to get to this point but I am so excited for this new part of our life. I am so grateful for all the love and support we have received from our family and friends, especially those people who have let me cry, complain, and laugh with. I am also so grateful to my Heavenly Father for this wonderful blessing and for the things I have learned from my trials.One thing that I have learned is that He is always there and so is our Savior. No matter what I am going through, our Savior knows how I feel and wants to comfort me. I just have to let him. We don't have to face hard times on our own, and I am so grateful for that.

    Summer is going to be a crazy and busy time, but I am so ready for it. I love this little baby so much already and I cannot wait till I can kiss his or her sweet face!

We Wish You a Merry Christmas!

We had such a fun December! I love Christmas time, maybe a little too much. I'm one of those people who had my tree up a couple weeks after Halloween and also started jamming out to Christmas music. My house is filled with decorations and I pretty much watched Christmas movies every night. I love doing fun Christmas activities and traditions with my little family. 

 We went to Temple Square to see my little brother sing in his choir.

Our Christmas Eve is always so fun. Every year, we frost sugar cookies and leave them out for Santa. We visit our families and then Sophie gets to come home and open one present. After we are in our comfy clothes, we read Luke 2 and then we watch a movie. The last couple years it´s been Charlie Brown´s Christmas, which is one of Soph´s favorites. This Christmas Eve was especially fun because she really understood that Santa was coming and she was so excited. 

 New Christmas jammies 

 Drawing her picture for Santa while watching Charlie Brown

Our Christmas day was so exciting and busy, but that is what makes it so fun. I love giving people presents. Especially Sophie and Sky. I love seeing Sophie´s excitement as she sees what she got. Having a little kid at Christmas is like getting to be a kid again yourself. I am sad it is over but am excited to be starting a new year with my favorite people. I am so grateful for my Savior and for this awesome time of year we get to celebrate his birth. 

Thanksgiving in Hurricane

Every year, Skyler and I rotate which side of the family we have Thanksgiving with. This year was my side, so we made the long drive down to Hurricane. I love it down there! We stayed at my aunt and uncles house and it was great to spend so much time with all of them.The girls of the family spent a good portion of our time shopping, which is pretty much a tradition. The guys watched a lot of football and went shooting. This was a such a fun trip and a very special Thanksgiving for my little family.

I am so grateful for these crazy people!

I am also so grateful to be a wife and a mommy to these two. They are my biggest blessings and I am so happy I get to spend forever with them. They crack me up all the time and make life so fun. 

    

 

Looking at the cows with Papa and Uncle Mark

 Sophie loved playing football with Daddy, but didn't really like it when she didn't get to have the ball...Ha ha

My little monkey loves spending time with her Papa and Nana

 

When life gives you lemons.....

I debated whether or not I wanted to write about this but decided it would be a good idea since this is such a big part of our life right now. I am using this as my journal and want to remember as much as I can about the situation. I hope to be able to look back at this time and remember what I learned and see our blessings in the hard times.
   We have secondary infertility. I didn't know that was a real thing. I thought infertility was something that only applied to people without kids, but it actually makes up more than half of all infertility cases. Not being able to get pregnant had always been a fear of mine when I was younger. I had known a lot of people, including my mom, who had had this trial. We got pregnant with Sophie shortly after we were married, so I assumed we were in the clear. I thought it would maybe take us like four months max to get pregnant. But sometimes our Heavenly Father has a plan for our life that is different than our own.
   Months kept passing and the negative pregnancy tests seemed to be piling up. I had noticed from the start that some things with my body weren't quite right. I was all over the place. I started to get more concerned as time went on. I had gone to my doctor, the same one that delivered Sophie. She didn't know quite how to help us and didn't want to waste our money trying to figure it out. She sent us to an infertility specialist. We have had some amazing highs there as well as some completely devastating lows. That is often how infertility works. Something good will happen and you feel like progress has been made, only to have a frustrating stumble after that. We have lost two sweet babies, one in May and one at the end of August. It has been the hardest thing that we have ever had to go through, and I am still slowly healing. I am so grateful to have Sky by my side. He is the best. One thing that has amazed me is the love I have felt from my Heavenly Father and my Savior. I have noticed that life is so much more difficult if I don't have their help. It doesn't mean I still don't have really hard days, but it means that I am able to get through them.
   Infertility is an emotional roller coaster. Secondary infertility also adds some different challenges. I have an amazing little girl who asks me for a sibling almost every day. It kills me. It is hard because you plan how far apart you want your kids to be, and when it is not working out, you sometimes feel like a failure as a parent. I am so incredibly grateful for my Sophie Sunshine. I love her more than I can even describe. Because of my love for her, I want her to have a brother or a sister. I love my brothers and don't know what I would do without them. I want her to have those experiences. Even though we have wanted another baby for almost two years, I am so grateful for all the time that we have had, just me and her. She is my shopping guru, my cuddle buddy, and my little best friend.
   I am also so grateful for my friends and my family. It has been so helpful to have people to talk to and vent to. Infertility is more common that I think a lot of people realize. One in eight couples struggle to get pregnant, but sometimes it seems that it is taboo to talk about it. For some couples, keeping it private is the best route for them, and that is great!. For me, especially during the miscarriages, it has been so comforting to have the support and the love. My hubby has been so wonderful through everything. Our marriage has been strengthened and I have grown to love him even more.
   Even though life has not gone as planned the last couple years, we are so blessed. I am trying to remember that Heavenly Father knows what is best for us and what experiences will help us grow. Someday we will all understand why we we were given our trials. I am also going to try harder to stay positive and focus on all the wonderful blessings that I have. And hopefully soon, another little Simpson will be joining our crew!

We had such a fun October! For my birthday, we went to Black Island Farms. We went through the corn maze, slid down the slides, and saw all the cute farm animals. Sophie was in Heaven! We went to Black Island Farms last year but this was her first time going in a Corn Maze. She loved leading the way and trying to find the way out. I love taking her to experience new things. 

One of my favorite family traditions is pumpkin painting. We started our first Halloween married and have done it ever since. Sophie always picks cute, bright colors when she does hers. And of course. pink is usually the main color.

Halloween was such a blast! Sophie decided two months ago that she wanted to be Ariel. No more mommy getting to pick her costumes. I was a little sad, but she was the darn cutest mermaid ever! I took her Trick-or-Treating at my work in the afternoon. She was so excited and yelled "Trick-or-Treat" at every desk. That night, we visited both of our families and took her Trick-or-Treating through our neighborhood. She told us we couldn't go home till her bucket was full, and 

goodness was her bucket full. We are going to have candy till Easter. It was such a fun night!

Lets try this again!

I started this blog a few years ago, and then forgot about it! Last week I figured out my old blog name and read through the old posts. It was so fun to see what life was like for us back when we were first married and pregnant with Sophie. It gave me the bug to start up the blog again and hopefully I can keep with it a little longer than I did last time. A lot of crazy and exciting things have happened since I stopped blogging and I regret not keeping a better record of them. So here's to a new personal goal of mine...Wish me luck!
  Sky is currently in his last semester for his bachelors! We could not be more excited! He will graduate from Utah State with a bachelors in Mechanical Engineering and a minor in Spanish. This has been such a long road for him and I am so grateful for all of his hard work. And not to mention the commute...It will be so nice for him to not have to drive to Logan almost every day. Right now he is working at Barnes Aerospace as an engineer intern. I'm excited to see where the next few months take us! December can't come soon enough!
  Sophie is a crazy little three year old. She is so outgoing and seriously tries to make friends everywhere we go. She loves going to nursery and her dance class. She is my little best friend and my sunshine. She loves to perform and will sing and dance to any song you request, her personal favorite is Frozen and Little Mermaid. She knows her ABC's, counting, and just got her "days of the week," down. She is very stubborn and sometimes gives me a run for my money, but man oh man do I love this little girl!
  I have been busy being a mommy and a wife! I teach Relief Society and am a Ward Missionary. I still work at America First but am so blessed that I only work two days a week! I love the people I work with. They are some of my best friends. But am also so grateful for all of the time I get to spend with Soph. I will be handing in my name-badge come this December to be an all the way Stay-At-Home-Mommy :)
   We are so blessed and I love this little family of mine!

Happy Aniversary!!

Sky and I celebrated our one year anniversary. I can't believe it has already been a year. Time has really flown. I am so grateful for him in my life. He is my best friend and takes such good care of me. To celebrate, we spent the weekend in Salt Lake at the Little America Hotel. It was such a nice little vacation. Friday night we took the shuttle to Temple Square and actually ran into President Monson speaking at the Joseph Smith Building! It was so neat to be that close to him. On Saturday, we went to our friends wedding, then went back to our hotel and swam in the pool. That night we ate dinner at the Garden. It was so great to just spend time in with Skyler, especially before the little bundle of joy arrives.