Reason For Our Absence...

We have spent the past two months on our knees.  It is amazing how quickly you can be brought to remembrance of how precious life is and how incredibly giving our Heavenly Father continues to be.  It is no secret that Dallas and I have been trying to start a family.  It’s been a long frustrating and heartbreaking journey over the past three years.  We have become accustomed to the sadness of receiving negative results test after test.  And have become even more accustomed to the sadness that follows after receiving positive results and then weeks later being crushed by miscarriages.  I know there are several people that can relate since loss is so constantly prevalent in our day-to-day lives. 

At the beginning of September we found out that we are pregnant again.  It breaks my heart to admit that we wouldn’t allow ourselves to get excited.  Immediately the fears and worry returned from the previous experiences.  I love Dallas so much.  I am constantly baffled as to how I ended up with someone so kind, loving, patient, and understanding.  He has held me through some of the hardest weeks, trying to not feel anxious while being frightened every time I would feel a cramp.  He has come home to a house full of messes and not full of food; to a crying wife worried that the worst would happen.

It is in these moments of fear that I have turned to our Heavenly Father; to ask for comfort and peace and to fill my heart with hope again, which He has done so.  We have heard our baby’s heart beat (three times now), seen our baby bounce around (and I’m pretty sure, wave to me), and have felt all of the extremely “fun” symptoms that a pregnant mom feels during the first trimester.

Even though we are still very scared, I keep telling my family that it helps to know that there are people out there excited for us; so that when our fears and worry overwhelm us we still know there are people celebrating.

We have successfully made it through the first trimester, finishing up 13 weeks…further than we have made it before.  Our little one is due the first week of May and we couldn’t feel more blessed.

So I apologize for our absence; for my not responding to emails, texts, and voice mails and not keeping updated on our blog.  My life right now consists of sleeping, eating, and more sleeping.  I should probably also try to fit in a little grocery shopping for Dallas at some point…

Photo of the Week 33

Nothing like a great jumping picture at the beach!

Dallas and I spent Labor Day at the beach with our family and we had a blast.  More pictures to come...

I love the surfers waiting for the next big wave in the background.  The ocean was full of them that day and it's always fun to watch them surf.

Seattle: Pike Place Market

The next morning mom, dad, Stuart, Dallas and I walked up the hill to Pike Place Market for breakfast.  We had fresh baked breads from the local bakery and wondered through the market place.  I love coming to Pike Place.  The colors lined on both sides from food and flowers are absolutely gorgeous.  We bought fresh Rainier cherries, blueberries, and raspberries and then took them to the neighboring park to snack on while we people watched in the sun.  It was the perfect morning!

We couldn't believe how big the shrimp were!  The fish smell was a little strong, but we couldn't resist from taking the classic fish face picture.

I loved all the different flowers row after row, but my favorites were the dahlias.  They have gorgeous heart shape petals and come in vibrant shades.

We had a wonderful morning eating fresh fruits and relaxing.  We made it back to the hotel a few minutes before check out and then headed to the theater to see Les Miserables with the rest of my family.  I'm in love with Seattle!

Seattle: Marriott Waterfront

On our second night in Seattle we met up with mom, dad, and my younger brother Stuart.  My parents spoiled us with a relaxing nights stay at the Seattle Marriott Waterfront Hotel.  It had incredible views of the ocean and pier.  It was a lot of fun to explore the waterfront shops and watch all the interesting people pass by. 

For dinner we walked across the street to Anthony's at pier 66.  We were seated next to the windows for a gorgeous view of the bay and sunset.  I loved looking out at the marina and watching the people take care of their boats.  There was a lady laying on the back of her sail boat while her husband took care of tying up the rigging...what a life!  I also loved that there were police speed boats docked as well.

Dinner was wonderful.  The food was so fresh, caught that day.  We had a lot of fun catching up with mom and dad and hearing Stuart's latest antics.  We really do have an amazing family, such generous and hilarious parents.  After dinner we wondered along the pier, window shopped, and enjoyed a gorgeous evening.

Thanks again for spoiling us mom and dad!

Seattle: Owen Beach

 After Heather and I took the girls to Point Defiance Botanical Gardens, we drove five minutes up the road to Own Beach for a picnic.  It was an absolutely gorgeous and warm day, pretty rare for the Pudget Sound.  We ate lunch and then quickly helped the girls get in their swim suits.

 My sister-in-law, Heather is gorgeous!  It's no wonder that my nieces and nephews are such cuties...they've got some great genes! 

Sadie was so funny to watch.  She is fearless and LOVED the water, even though it was freezing.  She would walk backwards into the waves, spread her legs and lower herself into the splits, get pounded by a wave, want help getting up, and then run willingly back into the water.  I should have taken a video, because it was pretty hilarious to watch.

 The biggest difference between beaches in Washington and beaches in California is the sand.  There is no sand in Washington.  The beach consisted of small and medium sized rocks, which made for a classic diaper picture while Sadie climbed on drift wood.  Nothings cuter than a rocky, saggy diaper!

Seattle: Point Defiance Rose Gardens

 The weekend in August Dallas and I flew up to Seattle to see Les Miserables, Dallas had to work one of the days in the Seattle office.  Heather and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to visit Point Defiance Rose Gardens near Tacoma.  My two youngest nieces, Katrina and Sadie, were super excited to see all the gorgeous flowers and I was more than happy to take several pictures of it all.

 Each entrance to the garden had a long archway path covered in flowers.  I felt like we were walking into the "Secret Garden."  Sadie is quite the character and it was all we could do to make sure she didn't tear apart all the petals as we passed.  I love this shot of Katrina kissing Sadie.  They are both such sweet girls and I absolutely LOVED being able to spend such quality time with them!

 There were several different paths we were able to explore.  I loved the different wooden arches and benches spread throughout the garden.  They also did an amazing job with the mix of colors from all the different types of flowers.

 Katrina was such a great model!  I have never had her so willing to smile for the camera.  There were even several times where she would say, "Ooh take a picture of me here!"  She was also pretty cute dancing through all the tall rows, as demonstrated in the picture below.  Sadie was hilarious to watch.  She would be walking and jumping around and then the next minute lay on the ground for a break.  At one point we looked over and she had sat herself down right in the middle of a gorgeous flowerbed.  Needless to say those flowers were pretty squished when she stood a few minutes later.

 When we left the garden, the neighboring park was covered in geese.  It was pretty cute to see Sadie chase after them and Heather chase after Sadie trying to save her from the annoyed geese.

Photo of the Week 32

Have you ever looked back through a set of pictures that you recently downloaded and found one that literally melts your heart?  I don't know if there is anything sweeter than getting a glimpse of how incredible Dallas is going to be as a daddy.  He's already an amazing uncle!

Photo of the Week 31

Taken at Point Defiance Botanical Garden in Washington.

I absolutely LOVE the water droplets along the leaves.

Neighborhood Celebrates Shawn's Birthday

At the end of July, our neighborhood block got together to help celebrate Shawn's birthday.  His wife, Aubrey, is a close friend of mine that I've had a blast serving with in Primary.  We all brought something to share for dinner and then started up the BBQ.  I've loved the summer days here in California allowing everyone to get out and have fun with each other!

Shawn blowing out his candles.

Who would have thought that the parking lot would be such an awesome hangout!?  Now if only we could find a good patch of grass...

 

The Bishop came riding in on his motorcycle to help celebrate the festivities.  His son, Nick, joined in as well.  Like father; like son!

It's no secret that Dallas and I have been trying to start a family.  It's been a frustrating and unsuccessful process, but I have to admit that I have the most amazing friends surrounding me.  They are so understanding about letting me fawn over their children and practice my photography on them.  There were so many opportunities at this party to capture what sweethearts they are.  

Look what cuties I have around me...

I feel so blessed to be surrounded by such incredible friends!

Flashback Friday: Poly Flava

During the summer of 2003, my friends and I threw one of my favorite parties of all time.  I had just recently returned from my semester teaching in New Zealand and I still had a "bit" of the Polynesian Islands on my mind.  What better summer group date than a themed "Poly Flava" one!?

 All of the girls pitched in with the decorations.  It was quite the feat!  We covered all of the apartment walls with light and dark blue butcher paper.  Than we all spent hours cutting out and creating fish and other sea animals to put in our 'ocean'.  The Heimback sisters pretty much took over using their creative genes to come up with some of the most creative sea life.  Becky even made duck butts to put on the ceiling so it looked like we were in the water looking up to the surface...genius!  We made a kelp garden out of brown butcher paper, hung green and blue ribbon and streamers from the ceiling to make it have the feeling of being surrounded by sea weed.  We also had a big bucket filled with sand for people to make sand castles and burning tiki torches.  We even filled an entire kiddie pool inside of our apartment and then put 30 gold fish inside...I'll fill you in on what we did with the left over gold fish later...  In short the decorations turned out amazingly!

 Everyone came dressed in their Polynesian outfits.  It was a good thing I brought back 7 different sarongs from New Zealand so those who didn't have anything to wear could borrow one.  JT even borrowed my coconut bar to wear for the evening, although it was a bit difficult to stay up!

 We started the evening with dinner, Hawaiian Pizza, but since there were over thirty of us attending, several sat outside on the grass to eat.  We then broke up into groups to play games while Polynesian music played in the back ground.  It was a great way to meet new people and have fun with friends.

 In the above picture you can see the kiddie pool along with all the gold fish.  The fish loved all the music!  After games we all packed into the apartment for a fun dance party.  One of my best friends, Whitney, and I ended up getting a little out of control (like usual) and almost fell into the pool...no worries though, no gold fish were injured...at that point...

 In the above picture you can see Mikey in front of the sandbox and tiki torches.  Thank heavens we had such great guy friends!  They were great about helping us move all the sand the next couple days.

 After dinner, games, and the dance party, we all drove out to the Heimback's cousins' house.  They have an incredible valley in their back yard that was perfect for an outdoor movie.  We all brought tons of pillows and blankets, coated on the mosquito repellent, and then sat back to enjoy our movie.  It was the perfect ending to a super fun date!

Thanks to all those who were a part of this night!  It continues to be one of my favorite memories from the 198th ward :)  Love you guys!