A Smooth and Bumpy Road

So a lot has happened and probably most people out there know whats been going on but I have not been very good at keeping a blog but I just decided I need to update it.

So since I last posted Paul and I went on a luxurious vacation with my parents to Hawaii!

(thank you mom and dad for paying for our tickets and thank you Grandma and Grandpa for letting us use your timeshare this year!)

It was Paul's first time to Hawaii and my first time to Kauai. It was so beautiful and lush its no wonder it's called the garden island. Paul and I did a lot of fun things like snorkeling, kayaking, eating delicious Polynesian foods, hitting the beach everyday, and a nice hot tub every night!

Here are some pictures from our vacation.

 first day at the beach!

 at the lighthouse (it was under construction :-/)

 Fun bike ride off the coast

 our view from our condo

 warm water of tunnels beach

 our kayak/hike tour into a hidden water fall

last day at hawaii :( at the airport 

Well we had an all night flight so when we landed it was morning and we drove straight to the Pieper family reunion. Unfortunately  I did not get any pictures of that but it was so fun to see all of Paul's family in one place at one time. I think the last time we had seen everybody was when we got married. Anyways we had a lot of fun playing with the nieces and nephews and hanging out with the adults ;). 

After the family reunion it went back to our normal lives or working. I ended up getting a more part time position with Melaleuca in customer service. (for those of you who don't know I was only working 3 days a week for Melaleuca.) I was excited to get trained and be on a new team. I made a lot of new friends on my team and really enjoyed going into work (for the most part ;P)

Since the reunion I had been having a hard time with things. It was hard dealing with being around lots of little kids and babies, I loved it but it also tore my heart out thinking about what had happened the previous month. It was hard as I was trying to be a good wife, work and deal with my strong emotions with the miscarriage all at the same time. It all felt very over whelming. Well little did we know that we had a surprise for us the next month. 

On September 8th we had nothing else really to do and decided to take a pregnancy test. We were so surprised to what we had found. So surprised we had to buy two more just to make sure! I was pregnant! We were so happy again I could not believe it! But the excitement soon faded. I didn't want to let anyone know. We already went through one miscarriage and it would have been even harder if we had told people again and had another one. I also refused to go to the doctors anytime earlier than 12 weeks. I was so nervous and scared during the first 3 months. I did not want to miscarry again. I prayed with all my heart every night that the baby would grow to be healthy and strong. I felt so anxious all the time, I wanted to know if the baby was okay or not, but it didn't feel worth it to me to go to a doctor until I had passed that high risk of miscarrying.

On a brighter note in October my family called me and told me they decided to go to Disneyland during general conference weekend and asked if Paul and I would like to come. Well of course I could not deny that offer! I hadn't been do Disneyland in years. So we piled all 6 girls and 2 men in the suburban and drove to California!  We had an awesome time at Disneyland, it stunk that I couldn't go on some of my favorite rides because I was pregnant but we sure had a good time. It was great being back in good ol' Moorpark and it was nice to see my Grandparents, aunt and uncle and cousins again.

Here are some pictures from Disneyland.

Morning sickness wasn't very bad for me but I did not feel lucky. I felt like I had so much to worry about because last time it was the same way. I felt like everyone else had full blown morning sickness and the worst I got was slight nausea throughout the day. Well 12 weeks finally came and I set up my first appointment. That morning I tried so hard not to be nervous and I did pretty well except for the fact that I felt like my heart was about to explode out of my chest. It seemed like it took forever to get to this day and I dreaded it so much. I did not want to even look at the screen of the ultrasound because I was so afraid I would see what I saw last time.

 Well to my delight there was a beautiful 12 week fetus with a strong healthy heartbeat!

 

Paul and I are so excited for May to come around but even more excited right now for December to come so we can find out the gender of our baby is! Anyways, we are moving out of our little studio apartment in December and Paul found us a cute little 2 bedroom house to live in for when the baby comes! I am so excited for this new places. Its going to have 2 rooms (which is a definite upgrade from where we are staying), it has a kitchen with a stove (no more toaster oven!), a fireplace to keep our toes-ies warm, and a backyard area with a fire pit and a little area to garden(so exciting!).

So that's what has been going on lately, Paul will probably graduate next year and we are interested to see where our path will lead after that! Thanksgiving is next week so I hope everyone has a good time and eats lots of turkey!