Pregnant? SURPRISE!

Well, I think by now most everyone knows we are expecting... but this post is about how we found out... 

After getting married and getting settled into our place Jared and I both started work. We were working together, which I LOVED. The job we did requires a lot a traveling (which Jared is still doing and I'm not anymore and I hate it) and we were basically living out of suitcases since our wedding. We spent a week working in Cedar City, then we had a break for Thanksgiving. Our next job was in Las Vegas... which I was not thrilled about, but we needed work. It was a 3 week job, and we were not going to be coming home on the weekends like usual. That meant living in a Casino/Hotel for 3 weeks... it sucked. Anyway...

The first week of work was okay, but I was SSSOOOOOOOOOOOO tired. We would go to work from 7-4 and we would get back to the hotel and I would go to bed. Jared had to wake me up to eat dinner every night because I couldn't stay awake. Aside from wanting to take a nap every two hours... a lot of foods that I usually love did not sound good to me at all... like I wanted to puke just thinking about them. So the first week goes by... I'm pooped, and Friday night while sitting in the hotel watching t.v. Jared randomly asked me if I had started my period, which was weird... I mean, I know we are married and all, but the whole openness of the question caught me off guard... especially for him, he usually shies away from anything about lady stuff. So I'm sitting there thinking... nope, I haven't, which is also weird because I'm usually always right on time... no matter what. So I told him no, and he got this funny look on his face... he says "tired, food aversion, and missed period...", and I didn't get the connection. So of course I asked him to connect the dots for me... major blonde moment. So he says, "we need to add something to the shopping list...", (we had planned to go get snacks and stuff for the weekend...), and I asked what, and he said a pregnancy test. I looked right at him and laughed... it really hadn't crossed my mind. But then I thought about it... and I thought he might be right. So I told him okay... 

Of course I wasn't expecting to see this... 

Jared making his concerned/... look. Not sure what that is about.

Of course we couldn't be more excited! 

After the shock wore off we both realized how excited we are. We had decided we wanted to start our family soon, and here we are.

I've been waiting my whole life for the day I get to be a mother... and it's here. It's crazy to think that in just a few months I'll be welcoming my little one to the world. But I'm stoked. Jared is too... 

I'm not nearly as creative as my wonderful cousin Olivia, and we didn't even think of some cool way to tell our families... we just called them. :) But they are all super excited. 

Now we are in week 20, everything is going well. We are having a little boy!! I'm so excited and so nervous! I'm mostly nervous about the delivery... I'm not worried about taking care of him, I've had lots of practice... and I know it's tons different when it's your own kids, but I've always loved kids and my biggest goal in life was to be a mom. Now that I'm here it's all the little details that make me nervous. But things are going well. We have another ultrasound on Tuesday and I'll post those pictures sometime next week. 

The adventure continues, and just keeps getting better... 

Much love,

Rachel Lynn

Holidays!

We all know how much I love the holidays. Spending tons of time with my family, and eating good food is the best.

Halloween:
I don't really get excited about Halloween because my family doesn't really have any traditions... yeah we went trick'or'treating when we were kids but I haven't gone since I was 11. The only thing I can think of is getting rice balls from Grandma Wilson. But other than that Halloween for me is just another night to sit at home and be bored.
Of course Jared wouldn't let me get away with being a lame head... So for him, I got into it this year. We got pumpkins and carved a couple of Jack-o-lanterns, we bought WAY too much candy, and we had Julie and Jared come over for dinner and a movie. It was fun the hang out and we actually had quite a few kids come by for candy. A few of the weird college kids too... but it was still fun.

Jared loved carving pumpkins.

We were lame and got patterns... I'm not very creative or talented when it comes to drawing of anything. This was mine.. I love it.

This was Jared's. :)

Thanksgiving: 

Of all the holidays... Thanksgiving is my favorite. :) Good food... and even better dessert to wash it down. This year was a combined year for the extended Wilson family dinner. So the day before I spent helping make pies with all my sisters. As always, we made a TON of pies. I'm not sure what the total count was this year, but it was at least 12. It's always fun to bake and hang out with my sisters. Other than dinner with the family we just hung out all week. It was nice. I didn't take any pictures tho.... 

I have to postpone Christmas for another post. There is another story that goes before Christmas... :) 

Much love,

Rachel Lynn

What's next?

Well, since I'm going to get caught up... I guess the honeymoon is next.

It was tons of fun. After our reception we drove to St. George and stayed the night. The next morning we went to the temple there and I got some good pictures.

Then we drove to Oceanside, CA. It was a long drive, and it was nice when we actually got there. I got to see my good friend Carlie Frame!!! I hadn't seen her since spring of 2009! Crazy. Love her to death.
Monday: We got up early, got our 'compass cards', and got on the train going south. We went and spent the day in San Diego. We went to the temple, we ate out at Islands... really good place with a view of the temple :), we went to the beach. It was a great day.

On the train to San Diego

Waiting for the bus to go up near the temple.

San Diego Temple. It's become one of our goals to visit as many temples as we can. It was a Monday and the temple was closed, or else we would have gone in to do a session.

The view from where we ate lunch.

Eating at Islands. Gotta have a root beer float. :)

After spending the day in San Diego, we spent some time at the beach in Oceanside when we got back. Jared's first time being at the ocean. :) It was fun. We turned in early because we had a long day of driving ahead. 

Tuesday: We spent the whole day driving from Oceanside, CA to Carson City, NV... where Jared's family all live. They had planned a get together dinner so I could meet them and so Jared could spend time with them... first time for him to see them since he was 11 years old. It was a long day of driving through the desolate California desert... this was before Jared could drive a manual transmission so I had to drive the whole way. 10 hours. Bleh. So we arrived in Carson safe, and spent the night at Jared's grandmothers house. 

Wednesday: We spent the morning hanging out with Jared's grandparents. The gift that his grandparents gave us was a two night stay at Harvey's hotel at Lake Tahoe. So we went up there in the early afternoon the check in, we headed back to Carson for dinner. It was a fun night meeting and hanging out with all of Jared's family. Dinner was awesome and they also had cake and ice cream for us. :) It was yummy. We headed out relatively early so we could go back to the hotel. It was a really nice casino/hotel. The room was huge, king bed, sitting area by the window, awesome room service. It was nice to just sit and relax.

Thursday: We slept in. Spent the afternoon wandering around town and getting funny souvenirs. Just hanging out. It was really nice. Went swimming at the rooftop pool... sat in the hot tub. It was nice. 

Friday: We packed up and headed for home. It was another long drive. 11 hours. We made it back to my mom's house... where we got to open our gifts. Jared was really excited.. :) Because we had no way to get all the gifts to our house in my car... we stayed at my mom's and enlisted the help of my dad and his big truck... we had just bought a loveseat, and my parents had a washer and dryer for us to use so we were bringing everything down. I had previously moved all our furniture and everything else down. So we spent Saturday picking up the loveseat, and packing everything up in the truck, then taking it down. Thanks to my parents, and Julie and Jared for coming over and helping us finish getting things settled. 

All in all it was a fun week. And to be home and completely settled is nice. Now to relax and get ready for Halloween. :)

Much love, 

Rachel Lynn

Where does the time go??

So by now we all know how much I suck at staying up to date on my blog... But I've recently found that I have A LOT of extra time on my hands, so I figured I'd get started on catching up... Bear with me though, there is a lot.  It might take me a few posts to fit in everything. So much has happened in the last 5 months... just to highlight: the wedding!, the honeymoon, starting work, enjoying the holidays to the maxx, finding out we are PREGNANT, trip to Arizona to see Katie, Paul and the kids, more work, crazy fun adventures, more work, trip to Reno... SSSSOOOOOO much. So to get started on the catching up... It might take me a while, and just a disclaimer... this post is going to be EXTREMELY long. sorry! :) I promise it will be worth it.

First things first. I realize that I never told my engagement story... and seeing as how that was forever ago... I'll make Jared get on here and tell that when he is home this weekend.

Next: The week leading up to the wedding.
It was a long and hard 11 days of waiting for Jared to be done with work and finally come to Utah. Even with the great technological benefits, texting, skype... all that, I had a really hard time not thinking about him every second of every day. I tried to keep busy with all the last minute planning and details for the wedding. I kept taking pictures of everything I was doing and sending them to Jared so he could laugh at me... it made me feel better. I don't know why.
I have to say something. I have the most amazing family in the entire universe. Because we were trying to spend the least amount possible on the wedding, we had recruited lots of help from my family and also from wonderful friends from the good old 8th ward. Everyone was so willing to help with whatever we needed.
My wonderful cousin Tylyn did our photos, and her sister-in-law did our cake decoration. My mom and I made the cakes... I had to have 20 layer, and Jared wanted a carrot cake. Of course my wonderful mother and my amazing sisters did most of the hard planning while I was still in Alaska working... the flowers, the plans for the luncheon, the decorations for everything... I only had to give my input once in a while when my mom needed me to make a choice. By the time I got home all I had to do was meet with Tylyn and Susie about photos and the cake, and to pick up the last minute things like a garter, ties for the men, the cake knife and server, shoes... all that jazz.
The day Jared was coming was soooo crazy. It was a Tuesday, on Sunday I had a fever and had no voice and I figured it was a cold... but I wasn't sure. I felt like crap all day Sunday and Monday. I was trying to take it easy and I was basically shooting up Vitamin C, but nothing was making me feel better. I spent the whole day being so crazed about seeing Jared finally. The time finally rolled around for me to head to the airport, and I was sooooo ready. Had things gone as planned, I would have only had to wait about a half hour after I arrived... but I got a text right after I got there that Jared's plane had not yet left Seattle!!!!! I was so peeved. So I got to sit in the terminal alone, waiting for 3 extra hours... BAH. It was horrid. So I put my Angry Birds to good use while I was waiting. When his flight had finally landed... I had checked the status board, and instantly got butterflies in my stomach... I felt like a silly little girl. But when I finally saw Jared coming down that escalator, I started bawling. I couldn't hold back the tears. I was so happy to see him, and knowing that in just a few short days we would be married for all eternity... it made me so emotional. He made it down the escalator, although I almost ran up it just to get to him sooner... and I got the biggest hug ever. I never wanted to let go.
Jared was super nervous about meeting my family for the first time, and the whole ride home he kept asking me questions about everyone. Of course everyone was excited to meet him and he had no reason to be nervous, I mean if my family didn't like what they learned about him so far we probably wouldn't be getting married... Anyway, by the time we got there it was after 11pm, but most everyone had waited up so they could meet him. Of course my parents were on the loopy side because they working like crazy all day and they never stay up that late... but everyone was glad to finally meet him. Needless to say it was nice to know that for the next few days Jared would be in the same house... rather than 3,000 miles away. And in just a few days I wouldn't have to worry about saying goodnight and going our separate directions...
The next few days were a lot of fun. on Wednesday my wonderful Aunt Burnetta and cousin Vanessa arrived from Missoula, MT and it was so good to see them... the first time to see Burnie in at least 3 years and Vanessa since 2006. Thursday we did a bridal session with Tylyn. Jared's brother and his family arrived that evening and it was SOOO much fun meeting Emily and the kids. I LOVE THEM! Jared's grandparents drove up from Texas as well, and it was fun to meet them. The are amazing people. Friday my sister Katie and adorable niece Hannah flew in from Arizona. First time I'd seen them since leaving in May. And Hannah had gotten so big... of course she was barely a month old when I left. Annie and Spencer came to stay the night, Tyler came up for the weekend from Richfield, and Megan had made it down from Rexburg.  It was a blast to just hang out with my siblings. I missed them all so much over the summer.
Friday night was a lot of fun. Halie and Kayla kidnapped me and took me to dinner. We went to Los Hermanos, one of my favorites. We caught up from summer crazies and just had a good time laughing. It was so surreal, I was getting married the next morning.
Jared got to spend the night with his family, and he loved every second of it. He hadn't seen his grandparents in like 20 years... or longer.  And other than the weekend meeting with his brother in Anchorage in July, he hadn't seen his brother's family for like 4 years... I don't know how he does it. I would go completely nuts.
When we both got back from our evening activities, we ended up staying up for a while just hanging out and chatting with everyone. But we called it a night at a decent hour and headed to bed. And for the last night of my life I would sleep alone as a single lady. As I said my final separation goodnight to my man, I couldn't help but be emotional. I just am an emotional person. I can't explain to anyone how much I love Jared. And to have found him, and to have such an amazing relationship, knowing that the next morning it was going to change in the most amazing way. It was awesome. But we said our goodnights, and went to bed. I don't know about Jared, but I had a hard time sleeping. I woke up ready to get this day done and be a married lady. Kim did my hair, and we got done right on schedule with plenty of time to get dressed and drive to the temple. Driving to the temple with Jared was awesome. We just soaked in the moment and were both so excited to be married.
The Sealing ceremony was perfect. I'll never forget the amazing feeling, and the words of advice that were shared with us by our sealer. He is an amazing man. The most amazing part was seeing all my family and my closest friends there in the room supporting us. It was PERFECT.
After the ceremony in the Provo Temple, of course we did photos. The congratulations from everyone who was there overwhelmed me. I'm so thankful to have such amazing examples in my life.
The luncheon was fantastic. My daddy gave a mushy gushy speech that made me cry. The food was amazing, done by Josh Zonts and his family, my AMAZING mother made the dessert. And it was nice to just relax and visit with everyone who was able to come. We had a few hours to kill between the luncheon and the reception so we headed back to my mom's, and I took a much needed nap.
The reception was beautiful. With all the help from my family and friends everything looked amazing. My dad had built this platform for me and Jared to stand/sit on while people came to say hi and give their congratulations. It was so good to see so many people who have had an influence in my life. Old leaders, old friends, and all my cousins. It was awesome.
To say the least it was a PERFECT day. It was THE perfect day. The whole week was great, minus the waiting for Jared to finally get to Utah. Other than that I didn't stress about anything. It was just a good week with family and friends. Even with being sick up until the wedding day, it was awesome.
The funny thing is, the whole reason this all happened was because I randomly decided to go spend a summer working my butt off in Alaska. Of all the places to meet the man I've been looking for. It just took me traveling 3,000 miles to find him.

Coming out to greet our guests after the sealing.

My favorite kiddos in the WORLD.

Love my Grandparents. They are an amazing example to me. They've been married for 60 years!!!

Two of my best friends in the world.. :)love those girls.

The best neighbor in the universe. Love you Elizabeth.

Jared's brother and his family. :)

Aunt Burnie and Vanessa. Love you two. Thanks so much for coming!!!

My super fabulous parents. Love them to death. Thanks for all the love and support. 

Love him. :)

Dessert at the luncheon. Chocolate pie dessert stuff. :) 

My dad giving his mushy gushy speech. Love him.

Jasper, Erin, and Lorin

I LOVE my sisters. They are the best.

Miss Pearl. 

My Brothers. 

Miss Halie. Thanks for everything woman. I love you to death. 

Marcy, I owe you a lot. Thanks for being an amazing friend. And thanks for marrying my cousin so we are now family. Love you and your boys!

The yummy cake. :)

My baby sis... Can't wait for it to be her turn to get married.

This family are some of the most important people in my life. I don't know where I would be without them. These kids have brought so much joy and love into my life. Love the Jepsens. :)

It was the perfect day. The perfect start to my forever.

Much love,

Rachel Lynn Prescott