12 Weeks

Today marks 12 weeks and 2 days. We're almost into the second trimester!

The first trimester has been great. I've been getting used to the symptoms of pregnancy - nausea, occasional vomiting, fatigue, feeling faint, emotional changes... It sounds so simple when described on the internet, but experiencing it is a little different. The nausea feels different than the flu. It mostly happens when I'm hungry, or when I smell something strange - it doesn't even necessarily have to be something strange, it could be something that I normally like the smell of like soap, chicken, or brownies. It's crazy how when I get hungry, I immediately start to feel sick and I have to eat right away. And if I wait too long to eat, whatever I eat comes right back up. I'm usually to come right back to the table, though, and finish eating. The feeling faint thing is completely new to me. I've never had a problem with standing (or kneeling ;)) for long periods of time, but even after standing for 15 minutes I begin to feel light-headed and I have to sit down. I also cry... often. And for the most random things! We watched a video in my anatomy class and I started to tear up.

But the positive things greatly outweigh the negative!!! I have the most amazing husband - he's constantly picking up my slack around the house - (and you better believe there's been a ton of that!) cooking, washing dishes, doing laundry, you name it. He often makes me dinner, only to me being unable to finish it after taking one bite. He offered to hold my hair when I throw up. That was kind, but I think I'd rather do that one on my own. :) He lets me sleep in, and wakes me up in the kindest way possible - NOT like my dad's way of flip on the light, rip the covers off, and walk away. He listens to my constant babblings of how old our baby is, how long it is, how much it weighs, what its fingers look like, its activities, the state of its bladder/heart/brain, the cool new thing I heard in embryology...blah blah blah. And I'm sure he's interested in most of it, but seriously? Sometimes it's too much. He makes me get in the shower when I'm feeling sick, knowing I'll feel better afterward. He comes to pick me up from school when I feel sick from being in the cadaver lab, offers to make me whatever I want, buys spaghetti-o-s for me, (on the condition that he doesn't have to smell them) brings me breakfast in bed, lets me cry and complain about the most recent thing that's bothering me, and even saves my life when I pass out at the temple. :) And he does all this while he's extremely busy with school, work, student representative council meetings, presentations, managing the apartment upstairs, and the common stresses of every day. I'm so grateful for him and all he does for me. He truly is the BEST.

And, with the positives, nothing can describe the joy of walking past the fridge and seeing those three pictures of our little baby - knowing that it's ours, and we saw it wiggle around! We're so happy and excited. We even made pumpkins last night for family home evening that looked like babies... I'll post those soon.

Life is going so well right now. I couldn't be happier. :)

Our Little (and I mean REALLY little) Baby!!!

On Monday Sam and I went to the doctor for our first ultrasound. We were both really nervous that morning... Until we saw our baby, that is!!

It was such a relief to see that everything was perfect. The baby even moved around for us!! The poor nurse had a hard time measuring it because it wouldn't stop wiggling. This is my favorite picture because I think it shows the most detail - arms, legs, tummy, face, brain, everything.

When the baby finally stopped moving, it measured at 10 weeks 1 day - just one day shy of what we thought! Its heart beat was 166 bpm. It was so awesome to hear it just beating away!

Here's the profile shot. You can even see the little fingers! It was amazing to me how much it looked like a human, even though it's so tiny.

It was such a surreal experience to see this little human growing inside me. We knew it was there, and I'd been keeping track of how big it would be, but it was a completely different thing to actually see it. Especially when it started moving around! I think I've looked at the pictures on our fridge a million times since the ultrasound! Whenever I look at them, I just remember what it was like to see those little arms and legs punching and kicking. It was so fun to see our little baby for the first time. :)



*****On another note, my bestest friend Heather is getting married tomorrow!! I'm so excited and happy for her!! Greg makes her happy, and they're so perfect together. I can't wait to see them at the reception on Saturday!!!!!*****

Post for Tami

Dear Everyone Who Reads This Blog,

Sam and I (mostly Sam) just got off the phone with his mom, who informed us (mostly me) that we needed to update our blog. So, because Sam has the pictures from our trip on his computer - which he is using for homework right now - I will just write a little bit about what's going on in our lives.

School has started up, and it's been great to be back on schedule. Sam is taking 18 credits so he's busy, busy, busy. As for me? I'm only taking 12. (auditing 4 and retaking 8 so I don't rack up any more credits than the 48 I'm allowed to have when I apply to the Nursing Program again)

We've also started as managers of Apple Tree Apartments. Mostly it's been maintenance around the apartment, Sam riding herd on the 8 boys to clean, check-ins and check-outs, manager meetings, and painting parking lines in the parking lot by hand. Though it's been busy, it's been good to help things get back to the way they should be as BYU-I approved housing.

This weekend we are going to be spending lots of time with family. Ben is going to be leaving for Iraq on the 21st (I think) so we are going to Twin Falls to spend time with all of the Brubakers except for Joe who's doesn't get home from Mexico until March. It will be a weekend full of good memories. Even before we leave for Twin Falls on Saturday, though, Adam, Marci, Joseph and Isaac are coming to stay with us on Friday night! It will be fun to have them be the first visitors in our new apartment.

After we all spend time together in Twin Falls, Jacob will be the second visitor in our apartment! He'll stay until he goes home to Placerville on October 1st. He's going to have to sleep in my old flowery bedding, but at least it's soft and warm, right?

Overall we're really happy right now. Life is good, the weather's great, we're enjoying school, and my favorite holiday is only 101 days away!!!

I hope you will all forgive me for my sparse posting lately! Again, I promise to be better. There will be some fun pictures from Arizona and California coming your way, so be excited!

See you soon, Brubakers!!

Love,

Heidi

Salt Lake with Cameron, Alex and Mary

This is at the Children's Museum at Gateway Mall. We all had so much fun there!

The kids got to go inside a helicopter, and they thought that was quite cool!

After the museum we went to the fountains outside the mall. It was a hot day and the kids really enjoyed it! They were so cute and funny to watch.

Here they are soaking wet... Maybe we're bad, but we just let them get wet in their clothes. Not one of them complained about being cold on the drive home (they were wrapped in towels, I'm sure that helped), so we figured it wasn't too horrible.

Mary was so tired on the way home! Isn't she cute?

I know, I know... It's been a long time. But don't worry, I'm going to write ALL about our vacation in the next few days. The computer won't let me add any more pictures right now, but I have more to say so I'll post again tomorrow!

Favorite memories from Utah:

- Having Alex tell me "You were really young to get married, huh." (I just thought: you're definitely not the only one to say that) :)
- Watching Cameron laugh when Mary was disgusted at Sam and I holding hands
- Hearing Mary talk on her fake cell phone to Cinderella, Snow White and "Beauty." "Hello, Beauty? Cinderella says she can't come over. Ok, love you, bye."
- Watching the three kids team up at the museum to get all the building blocks from the one bossy kid.
- Hearing Cameron and Alex laughing in their room when they were supposed to be asleep, then going silent when they heard Sam's or my footsteps in the hall.
- Getting a picture Mary colored for us and telling her we'd put it on our fridge
- Racing through Wal-Mart as "boy team and girl team" to try to find the tie dye kits first

What We've Been Up To

Well, we've been moving!! A few weeks ago we got the offer to manage an apartment complex of 6 boys, live in a basement apartment with 2 bedrooms and save 60 dollars a month on rent. So, we jumped at the opportunity and moved in all our stuff before we left on vacation.

Moving stuff into the kitchen cupboards... Fun stuff!

Our first meal in the new apartment.

This is us at Warm Slough. This spot is where Sam and I had a bonfire last summer with friends... And it's where Sam says he fell in love with me.

Here I am where we stood last summer, pointing to the sunset we watched as we talked for hours.

This is in the back of our new apartment. The last managers didn't do very much yard work, but we're looking forward to planting a garden next year!

Notice the nice line of weeds? The right side is our yard. Don't worry though, they're gone now.

All of these weeds are taken care of too. You wouldn't believe the bugs that flew out at us when we weed-whacked those guys!

And this is the start of our vacation. Hello Jackson Hole!

On our first night camping we made these campfire pizzas. We used pita bread for the outside and put sauce and string cheese on the inside. I wasn't expecting much, but they were super good!

This is what they looked like before we wrapped them up like a burrito.




Here's our campground at Gros Venture the first night. There were lots of other families close by, so it was easier to sleep at night without waking up every few minutes afraid of bears.

It was fun to roast marshmallows. I hadn't done it in awhile!

This is Sam's version of a perfect marshmallow... Just let it burn to a crisp. I'm glad he likes it!

Here we are getting ready to get on the ferry across the lake.

As we were riding on the ferry to the start of the hike this rainbow was in the wake.

And this is as we started the hike.

This was the view from a little ways up the path.

Here we are at the top: Inspiration Point looking over Jenny Lake.

Sam's turn!

And now together...

After we got to the top we decided to hike back a little further into Cascade Canyon. Look at that view! I know the hat looks silly, but I didn't want to get my part sunburned...

And this is where we saw a moose! It was out in the canyon.

This is at String Lake where we went swimming. It is only about 7 or so feet deep at the center, and crystal clear the whole way. It was freezing, but we still had fun swimming around.

This was in a shop in Jackson Hole. We had fun just messing around. It's amazing to me what kinds of random things people will buy in gift shops for ridiculous amounts of money.

I definitely wasn't meant to be a cowgirl!

This is the side of the Tetons that we don't see in Idaho.

Look how beautiful! We had lots of fun in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park.


Right now we are in Salt Lake City watching Sam's 3 cousins - Cameron, Alex and Mary. We've had lots of fun adventures so far, and we'll blog about it when we get the chance!

Our Upcoming Adventures

So I'm in the laundromat down the street from our house... I feel like I should be in a movie or something, since there are so many scenes in laundromats. Anyway.........

Sam and I are leaving for vacation tomorrow after church and we won't be back home until August 30th!! We're SO excited!!!

Tomorrow we're heading off to Jenny Lake in Yellowstone. We're going to wake up early on Monday morning and take the ferry across the lake to a place where we can hike to the top of the mountain and look over the whole lake!! After we spend a few days hiking and camping we're going to Adam and Marci's in Gardiner, Montana to stay a night. It'll be fun to see them again, even though we only saw them last weekend! :)

Then we'll be heading to Salt Lake City. While we're there we'll hopefully see Tucker at BYU but that's not for sure since he has finals.... We're going to spend a couple days with Ben and Melissa - we might go to Lagoon but we'll see! Then for the next week or so we'll be babysitting 3 of Sam's cousins. It'll be so much fun!

After Salt Lake we'll head to Mesa to see my family. We don't have too many plans or anything, but I'm sure we'll be swimming a ton! I'm definitely looking forward to getting some sun.

Then after 10 days in AZ we'll head to Placerville to see Sam's family. So far we've planned a trip to San Francisco since neither Sam nor I have been there before. We also might go to the beach, which will be fun! We're just bummed since Elijah has a football game the day we leave so we'll have to miss it!

But we're definitely excited to see everyone! We'll take lots of pictures to post later.

********* And this is a happy thought from earlier today. Sam and I were at the grocery store stocking up on stuff for our camp out when we saw this really old man looking at cards. We got in line and he got behind us. Sam asked him if he'd found the right card because it looked like he'd been looking pretty hard. The old man said with emotion in his voice, "I sure hope so. She's turning 78 and we've been together almost 54 years."

Random Acts of Kindness

Last night Sam and I had no food in the house, so we decided to go to Subway for dinner. We were standing in line behind a big family group and then a man that was all by himself. The man was probably 45-50, he was dressed in a big t-shirt, cameo pants and a baseball cap, and he looked a little scruffy. When it was our turn to order we asked the lady making our sandwiches if it would be cheaper to get two 6-inch sandwiches or 1 12-inch. She told us, and we made our decision. We each said what we wanted on our sandwich, and got to the cash register at the end. When we went to pay, the girl ringing us out told us that the man before us in line had already paid for our food. We were surprised but extremely grateful. He was getting his drink, and the only thing we could think of to say to him was thank you. He turned around and said, "You guys have a really good one," in a sincere voice.

Sam and I kept talking about this as we got in the car and drove away. The man didn't look like he had lots of money, but he still took the time to pay for a couple of random college kids' sandwiches. I was very touched by this small act of kindness. It made me want to be better. He doesn't know our names, what our life is like, what we are majoring in, or how long we've been married. We don't know his name, what his life is like, what he does for a living, or how many kids he has - but we do know just a little about him by what he did for us.

I am truly grateful for the reminder a random man in Subway gave me of how to be a better follower of Jesus Christ.