Catching Up for a Year and Some Change

Long story short. Lehi and I met in college. I though he was immature and annoying. But he won me over with his charm and good looks.
Lehi and I were sealed for time and all eternity in the Portland Oregon Temple August 18th, 2013.

Since then I:
Graduated with my BS in Exercise Physiology from Brigham Young University--Idaho.
Was hired as adjunct facility at BYU-Idaho, teaching Exercise Physiology Labs and an Internship course
Was hired part time at Melaleuca in customer service
Am expecting a baby boy in April.

(A sneak peek of how awesome my job on campus is: Students had to take a manual blood pressure and HR when one of them was running on a treadmill)

I told Lehi that I would start a blog MONTHS ago, so I am finally getting around to doing it--mainly because I want to have something to look back on with Maverick.

When we were married, Lehi and I both wanted to wait about a year before we started praying about having children. (That way, we couldn't get an answer to start having them until then) Our "baby hungry times" alternated between us, which worked out very nicely. When he really wanted a baby, I didn't, when I did, Lehi didn't. So we had that going for us. Around our 1 year anniversary, we both felt prompted to start a family of our own. A decision that was made between us, as a couple, and our Heavenly Father.

In August, we decided to road trip back to Washington to visit my parents. I had a feeling that I was pregnant and shared that with Lehi.
We stopped at Moltnoma Falls in Oregon to take a small break and ironically ran into Aunt Becky and Uncle Robert, who were driving to the coast for their anniversary. Small world! At that point in time, we did not know if we were pregnant or not so we didn't mention it.

Lehi  was so anxious to know if we were --and he wanted to call family while we embarked on our 12 hour journey to WA--I took a pregnancy test in a rest-stop between Rexburg and Bosie. It was positive! We celebrated by buying ice cream cones.

I sent a text to my sisters with a picture of the pregnancy test while Lehi started calling family. The conversation with his mother was by far the most eventful because the connection was awful and she couldn't hear him.
"Mom, we're pregnant!"
"You're captured?"
"Mom. Listen. BREI IS PREGNANT."
After about 5 minutes of trying to relay the message through slow speech and yelling, she finally heard the news and started yelling with excitement.
We were going to wait to tell my parents in person.

We told Grandma Linda and Grandpa Jensen when we stayed the night at their home. They were both so excited for us. That night we brought blankets outside and slept on the trampoline--which was all great until I realized that I was constantly rolling into Lehi because he weighs more than me. And it rained on us about 3 in the morning, so we relocated to the living room floor.

Lehi was very disappointed in my parent's reaction which pretty much consisted of, "we figured as much." Already having 9 grandchildren, it was news they were used to hearing, and mom was well aware of how baby hungry Lehi was. He said he was never telling my mom anything ever again!

We decided not to tell people outside of family that we were expecting until 12 weeks--just my personal preference.

First appointment 8/29 @ 10:00

We saw our baby for the first time! 

Heart rate of 178 bpm

 Doctor said they were very healthy!

The ultrasound tech was surprised how much they were moving

After talking with the doctor and asking questions, we had to go to Lehi's dentist appointment. He was super tired and took a nap.

To our baby: We are expecting you on 4/5/2014 and can't wait to hold you!

 Baby Announcement:

Presents from Aunt Ashley and Uncle Matt:

On November 18th, we found out we were having a BOY!
Lehi confessed a few days before that he wanted to have a Maverick almost as much as he wanted to have a boy. (I secretly wanted a boy really bad, but I wasn't going to let Lehi know that and fuel his fire)

We had a 30 minute ultrasound where they do an anatomy check on everything. She told us towards the end that we were having a boy! I didn't want to take my eyes off the screen, so I casually held out my fist to Lehi and we celebrated in a non-eye-contact fist bump.

Maverick did have some fluid in his kidneys, about 4 mm in each, which is borderline "red flag." The ultrasound tech said we would need to come in for another ultrasound during out next appointment to monitor. It was;t anything to be worried or stressed about, just something they wanted to keep their eyes on. My doctor said it was one of the best things to see on an ultrasound because it's nothing they were worried about and you got to see your baby again!

Gender Announcement:

Team Thomas First Round Pick:

We did our best not to go crazy on the shopping for boy clothes. We did pretty good with a few splurges here and there. The mass amount of clothes pictured below I got for $10.00 at a garage sale. The football snow gear is going to be great for Lehi's football games next year. And who could pass up such cute pjs for Christmas 2014?

I went in for another appointment, but I was super excited because I got to see Maverick again! The fluid in his left kidney had decreased (3mm) and the right kidney stayed the same (4mm). Doc decided not to monitor it anymore because it had not gotten any worse. I got spoiled with seeing him at my appointments, I was not very excited about my next '"check up."

Mav. 24 wks 2 days. 1.5 lbs. Head is 54th percentile

We celebrated Christmas with the Thomas side of the family in PA. Maverick was only 25 weeks old and made out like a bandit. The top half of our suitcase was devoted to this little man's clothes. Spoiled rotten and not even born yet! These pictures are missing many presents from family.

 Blanket from Ronnie and cute church outfit one of many from Tasha; rest are another garage sale steal

:Lehi became very frustrated when attempting to set up the pack-and-play for the first time--it was a pain in the rear. But after setting it up, he very carefully began placing things in it, draping blankets carefully, positioning the teddy bear just right, ect. Needless-to-say we are both very anxious for this little blessing to come to us!

I decorated above Maverick's soon-to-be bed with tissue paper clouds raining down footballs. It took me forever to cut each piece of the football out and glue it all together, but it turned out pretty stinkin' cute.

Here is the baby bump progress made thus far. I was sick for the first 18 weeks or so--super nauseous, sick to my stomach, no energy, ect. I threw up like clock work every morning and then could usually keep things down the rest of the day for the most part. Lehi would make me eat because nothing sounded good and when you feel yucky the last thing on your mind is eating. But I survived, as everyone does. Now it just dealing with being super uncomfortable having a belly now, popping tums all the time for acid reflex, and waking up with sore hips. Just adjusting to my new body. 

We are so excited for our little Maverick to get here!