2011 in Review

2011 was a pretty good year for the Cooper family. Everything started happening around June of this year which happened to be the time when I was finally back to normal after my jaw surgery. During June both Joseph and I were offered new positions at work. I started working on the new re-entry team and Joseph became a Network Security Analyst. My position is pretty similar to the old one but I do like this one a lot better. I feel like I'm making a big difference in our student's lives. Joseph's job is a big change from tech support and he is so happy with it! He is learning a lot. The only hard thing about Joseph's new job is that we work opposite schedules. I work from 6am-3pm(Mon-Fri) and Joseph works 2pm-12am (Wed-Sat). We make it work.

On July 4th we received the best news possible. That's when we found out we were pregnant! I woke up at 3:30am and had to use the restroom. I figured, if I don't take the test now I'll be wondering what the results would be and wouldn't go back to sleep. My sister-in-law Kacey bought a 2 pack test the week before and found out she was pregnant with the first test. So I had a test sitting in my bathroom just waiting for me. I decided to take it and right away it turned positive! I couldn't believe it! I went back to Joseph and told him. His response was "You ARE!!!". It was a really happy and excited response :)

On September 28th we found out we were having a little girl!! Joseph was convinced we were having a boy, so we were a little surprised when we found out it was a girl. We weren't disappointed, just surprised. After we made a few phone calls to family the shock wore off and the excitement kicked in.

We decided to name our daughter Adelyn. Joseph thought of the name right after we got married. Then one day we were in the temple and I had a really strong feeling that we should name our daughter Adelyn. Two years later, we are finally having our little girl!

Now all we have to do is wait for our little girl to be here! Just 11 more weeks until our due date, March 8th. Today we cleaned up all of the paint stuff in her nursery and put most of the furniture in place. The only thing we (meaning Joseph) need to put together is the changing table and the furniture will be done. After that we just need to hang the curtains (that I made!) and add some wall decals.

Since Joseph's job needs to be open 24/7 he does have to work tonight. Luckily he doesn't have to work Christmas Day. Since I also have Monday off we get to spend 2 full days together! We don't get that often so we are really excited. Then next weekend he was able to take New Year's Eve off so we'll have 3 full days together. We don't have any big plans except to go see the Muppet Movie (FINALLY!).

We wish that everyone will have a wonderful and safe Christmas and New Year's!

Love,

Joseph and Stephanie

Feeling Very Pregnant!

I am 26 weeks and 6 days along and I feel very pregnant today! I can really tell that I'm on my way out of my 2nd trimester and into my 3rd. This heartburn is out of control. The one good thing about it is my appetite is down so hopefully I'll stop gaining so much weight if this keeps up! LOL

We had a bit of a stressful week with a pregnancy scare at 25 weeks, but things seem to be going a bit better now. We had an appointment with the midwife last night and she said not to worry.

Good news is that my baby bedding is completely done and I really love it! I'm so happy that I decided to make my own baby bedding because now I have exactly what I want. Our crib is all set up and the color of the crib looks beautiful up against the pale lilac color walls. I will post pictures once the room is all done! We set up (correction... JOSEPH set up) our glider a few nights ago. Now the only thing left to set up is our changing table. Once that is done I'm going to add a few vinyl decals to the room and call it good!

I love this little girl so much! Joseph and I can't wait to see her. I think she is starting to recognize Joseph's voice. On Sunday morning she wasn't moving around very much when I was downstairs by myself. I went upstairs to wake him up about an hour later. Once he started talking she started moving tons! It was really cute. She wasn't just shifting around, she was full on kicking hard. Joseph felt almost every movement. It was such a fun experience.

Cooking.com Give Away!

Cooking.com is giving away a $100 gift card. What a great thing to win for your Christmas shopping! Check it out here:

http://www.makeit-loveit.com/2011/11/hellmanns-stuffing-crusted-turkey-cutlets-and-giveaway.html

Milestones

I love my little baby girl so much and she's not even born yet! Joseph is getting really excited too. The other day he went in the nursery and saw the boxes of diapers with babies on there. He told me he thought "I wish ours was here!" So cute! I wanted to write down these few milestones so I don't forget them:

16 weeks : I felt like I started showing
17 weeks: Others said I was showing
20 weeks to the day: I felt Adelyn move for the first time. She didn't move again for 2 days, but I've felt her every day since then.
22 weeks 5 days (Last night): She tried kicking the doppler off my belly when they were trying to listen to her heartbeat! They said she is a VERY active baby because she kept running away from the doppler. LOL
Today: We have exactly 4 months remaining until my due date AND it is the 1 year anniversary of my TMJ surgery!

Update:
23 weeks 4 days: Joseph felt her move for the first time!

Update 11/16/2011
23 weeks 7 days: This may be TMI, but I still want to document it! Adelyn has to be jumping on my bladder today because at times I'm afraid I may wet myself. She has kicked my bladder before and made it feel a little full, but nothing like today! Luckily she has shifted and I don't feel it as much anymore. But she was doing it for a good hour.

Pictures Of Our Baby Girl!

We found out on Wednesday that we are going to have a baby girl!! We are very excited! I can't wait to hold her. I feel even more of a connection with her now that I know her gender. It is amazing the change. It wasn't until I saw the ultrasound and found out that she's a girl that I really truly felt pregnant. It probably also helped that I'm finally starting to show. Pictures of that to come soon. For now here are some of the ultrasound pictures they gave us:

Curled up in a ball

Her little face and tummy

It's a Girl!!

Profile and hands. I think you can see her ear too

Profile

Cravings

I've had my fair share of cravings since I've been pregnant. At times I'm really grateful for my cravings because if I'm nauseous it will usually take the nausea away. Such a blessing! The majority of the foods I've been craving since I've been pregnant are not things I normally eat. The first craving I had was even before I knew I was pregnant. It was for a cheese burger. It is very rare for me to eat a cheese burger and I never go to the restaurant and order one! We had been working hard all day so we decided to get some burgers. Well, that craving didn't stop for a few weeks! I wanted burgers all the time!

My next consistent craving was rasberries. Luckliy rasberries are very good for you so I didn't feel so bad about eating these. The bad thing about rasberries is that they are expensive. So thankfully that craving has died down.

And the food I have been craving for the majority of my pregnancy.... POTATOES! I have always loved mashed potatoes but I would really only eat them at holidays. Except before and after my jaw surgery. I would eat them during that time becaues they were soft not because I really wanted them. But now I crave all types of potatoes... mashed, french fries, potato skins, tater tots, potato salad (which I normally don't even like!), and etc. I love them. My midwife told me (in front of Joseph) that I should stay away from potatoes now that I'm out of my 1st trimester. But it's so hard! Every time I talk about potatoes Joseph "kindly" reminds me I shouldn't eat them. I've been really good about it. I really only eat them 1-2 times a month which I think is pretty good considering I want them all the time! LOL.

If you can't tell, I'm really hungry and ready for lunch! That's what prompted this post. I was trying to decide what to eat! LOL

PS. To clarify, my midwife said I should stay away from potatoes because my fibromyalgia has been really bothering me since I've been pregnant. She said one way to help it from getting really bad is to try and only gain about 20 - 25 pounds. I've gained about 5 so far. I don't know what I'll gain later on but I'm trying to stay active (at least taking a walk every day) and eat healthy.

Being Pregnant

We are SO excited that we are pregnant! I am just over 15 weeks pregnant. Our baby is due March 8, 2012. It seems close and far away at the same time. I'm not going to lie, it was REALLY tough being pregnant for the first trimester. I am lucky that I never threw up, but I was nauseus everyday, all day. That was TOUGH! The other symptoms I have/had are fatigue, headaches, feeling hot all the time... You know what, I thought I would be able to list everything that happened to me the past 3 months, but I don't really remember. I guess if I forget how miserable I was the first 3 months then hopefully I'll forget the pain of labor that quickly too. What do you mom's think? :)

With some research, help from friends, and a presentation from a doula, we decided to go to a midwife instead of a traditional doctor. I'm not a crazy hippy or anything, I'm just trying to do what I feel is best for me and our baby. Our midwife will try to help me get through the pain naturally but if it comes to the point where I need an epidural, she'll let me have it. I'm excited that I won't have to be laying down in a bed the whole time and that I'll have options for birthing positions. We really like our midwife. Our first appointment was great. Excpet for when she couldn't find the baby's heartbeat! That was a little scary. She held the doppler to me for a few minutes and then brought in the ultrasound machine so she could find a visual heartbeat. It took a little while to find that but she finally did and I was relieved! I was glad that Joseph was there because I knew he wasn't worried and that he knew everything was ok.

Here's the picture of our ultrasound. She said that the little white spot was the baby, but then my friend Lindsey pointed out that it looks like there is a facial profile on the left hand side. What do you think? I like to believe that is my baby's head! :)

So for now, I'm mostly just tired all the time and nauseous. But my nausea only lasts for about an hour in the morning. Oh, and I also have really bad preganncy brain. Apparently I can't form sentences correctly anymore so I apologize for any weird sentences in my blog posts from here on out!

Best Week In A Long Time and Day 6

Here is a post that I made on my Sparkpeople blog :) I originally posted it yesterday.:

On Tuesday I found out I received the Employee of the Quarter award for my division at work. I am pretty impressed with that because there are over 1,200 people in my division! Then yesterday I officially found out that I received a new position at work! I'm really excited about it. I'm staying in my same division, but I have different job responsibilities. Then last night I had a great time with friends at my house playing bunco. And because I did all of my cleaning yesterday, I don't have to spend my Saturday doing it!

Today I took my dog for a 3 mile walk. It was pretty hot outside (about 90 degrees) so I did work up a good sweat on my forehead. When I came home I did the Biggest Loser Wii game and did an upper body work out for 16 minutes. That is about all I could handle because upper body is so weak. I hope to strengthen that through out my 30 day streak.

Also, I may have found a new favorite snack! Take some mozzarella cheese (about 1 oz), cut it into chunks and place it on top of a slice of cucumber instead of a cracker. The 2 flavors together tasted great! I'll need to try that snack again later today or tomorrow to make sure it really does taste good and not that it just tasted good because I was hungry

I'm pretty excited about reaching day 6 on my workout streak. I haven't worked out this many days in a row for a LONG time!

Garden and Baby Birds

Back in March or April we planted a garden at the stake plots and we are finally starting to harvest our veggies! We've had tons of summer squash and zucchini so far. I made a stuffed zucchini and baked ziti with zucchini chunks in it. We've also had steamed summer squash. I'm so excited for our tomatoes to turn red! I'm going to learn how to make my own salsa.

Stuffed Zucchini

About a month or so ago a momma bird built a nest on one of our outdoor surround sound speakers. We decided to let her do her thing. We watched her get chubby, lose her chub, start watching her babies hatch, bring them their food and then finally we were able to see their little heads poking out of the nest. It was really cool to watch. The past couple of days the 2 birds started getting bigger and started to flap their wings. We knew any day they would be leaving the nest. This morning we came down stairs and there was only one bird left. Unfortunately he was stuck to the nest! He was hanging upside down, flapping his wings, and trying to get away. Joseph took the ladder to help him back into the nest. The baby bird had some of the nest wrapped around his little feet. Joseph took the baby out of the nest, untangled his feet and placed him back in there. A few hours later we went back to look and the baby bird was gone. It was a neat experience to see them grow up. We even saw one of the babies come back today and land on the hammock outside. We knew it was the baby because his feathers were still fluffy and his beak was still yellow. Here are some pictures from the rescue:

Please don't look at my dirty window :)

And here is a funny picture of Sammy for good measure. Have a great week!

Happy Easter!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter! One thing that I'm saddened about with the "west coast" is that people don't really gather together as families on Easter Sunday. It's not a huge deal like it was in my family. If I didn't have a root canal on Friday then I would have planned a big feast. We are getting together with Kacey and Chris today, but it's more of a BBQ. I want to have an Easter with ham, mashed potatoes, corn and all of the good stuff. Maybe next year when I can actually eat it! :) Luckily my jaw and mouth don't hurt as much as I expected them to. That makes me REALLY happy!

My friend shared this link from Fox news. http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/04/22/especially-easter-easy-mock-jesus-christ-dont-dare-mock-faiths/ I was surprised that it was actually shared on the news. It seems controversial because it is about Jesus. I guess we are just so conditioned to think since we're not supposed to say Happy Easter or Merry Christmas anymore at work that we can't talk about Jesus period. So needless to say, I enjoyed the article. They made a good point about Lady Gaga in it too. About a month ago she changed her profile picture on Facebook to the cross and the name Judas. It really disgusted me. There have always been some things that I disagreed with her on, but I let it slide because I liked her songs. Well, no longer.

It is important for us to understand the importance of today, Christ's resurrection. We should surround ourselves with those who also have a love and appreciation of Him. Happy Easter, everyone!

It's Been A Long Time

Hey All!

Sorry it's been a while. We've had a lot of great things happen lately. 1) Joseph had 1.5 classes left until he's done with his Associate's Degree!!! 2) Joseph passed the first part of his A+ Certification yesterday and he will take the 2nd half this coming Friday. 3) I'm finally off all of my pain prescriptions for my jaw!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My jaw is feeling so much better now. I still get some headaches and my jaw hurts a little bit now and then, but it's really nothing I can't handle.

We started a garden over at the Stake Plots this year. We planted tomatoes, bell peppers, yellow squash and zucchini. I'm really excited for these to start growing.

Next week we are going to SeaWorld with some friends of ours. I'll be sure to post pictures from that. ... I swear I had more to write when I started this post, but now I'm drawing a blank. Oh well!

Hope you are all having a great Saturday!

Testimony Time

Since I am home sick and I'm not sure if I'll be able to go to Testimony Meeting on Sunday, I decided to share a true testimony builder from today.

It started last week when I still hadn't received my short term disability check and Joseph got his normal paycheck. We went to church and as Joseph was filling out his tithing slip, he handed one to me and asked me to give a fast offering even though I wasn't fasting nor have I been paid in the past month and a half. So I did. I knew that if I was going to make this fast offering then I really had to make it a sacrifice or else it wouldn't be worth it. As I mentioned, I have not received a paycheck since the middle of December, and even then, that paycheck was only for $40. Big whoop. We had to start dipping into our savings this week to pay our bills. Once we started doing that it felt like it drained so fast! It really scared me. I have been working with the short term disability people for a few weeks now because there were some complications with my claim. yada yada yada, I called them yesterday and was told I may not be getting paid but he had to research something and that I would get a phone call back in an hour.. but never did. I was laying in bed last night and just kept thinking about my upcoming physical therapy appointments this week and that they only accepted cash. I didn't think we would have enough money to even pay for those or the gas to get there, even though I really need them to help with my recovery. So I prayed for help.

On top of everything, I've been sick since Monday. So I went to my new primary care doctor today (Dr. Stoeckmann at Agave Family Physicians in Maricopa.. she was awesome btw) and she told me that I had bronchitis. That meant we had to pay the co-pay and for any prescriptions she gave me. So we dropped off my prescriptions at CVS and went home for an hour until they were ready. In the mean time I called the short term disability people again where they put me on hold for about 5 minutes. The woman came back on the line and told me they are mailing out my check on Monday!!! Yes! AND not even 2 minutes later, Joseph pulled up our bank account and saw that our State Taxes Refund was deposited!

This was such a strong testimony builder for me. I know that if we make sacrifices for the Lord, He will bless us. I am so truly grateful for this experience.

My New Craft Blog!

Hey Guys!

I decided to change my craft blog to Red Berry Crafts. You can find it here. I'm excited about this new blog! Here is my latest entry from it. I'll be posting all of my crafts, designs and creations there from now on. Make sure to follow it and share it with your friends :) Hope you enjoy the post!

I'm really in the Valentine's Day mood right now so I've had the song "Lucky" by Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat stuck in my head. My husband and I danced to this song at our wedding. I decided to make some wall art inspired by that song. So I pulled out my Silhouette SD and I started out with this:

I found a free clip art image online of outlined hearts. Cut them out with silver vinyl and added them here and then also added the next line:






And then finally I added the last line and some extra hearts:

Love it!

I linked this post up to these parties!:

Valentine's Day Mood

I don't know if it's because I've been making all of these Valentine's Day crafts or what, but I am really in the mood for Valentine's Day this year. It makes me realize how much I love Joseph. He truly is a wonderful husband.

Due to this new mood I'm in, I've been wanting to watch movies/TV shows that have really great love scenes. One of the best love scenes I think I've ever seen came from the show LOST. If you don't know much about the show, then I'm not sure if this clip will tug at your heart strings as much as those die hard LOST fans, but it is still beautifully done.

I wasn't able to embed the video into this post, so here is the link. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5u0RoTxtNs&feature=related

Glass Etching Success!

My first attempt at etching glass didn't go over so well (as I mentioned in a previous post). So I watched a few YouTube videos and read a few more blogs and decided the reason mine didn't turn out nice was because I didn't put enough of the etching cream on!

So, I took out another glass plate and decided to put one of those oh so trendy birds and a berry branch on it. I made my own bird silhouette from a bird that we saw at Animal Kingdom in WDW. So this is the original picture:

And made this image with my silhouette sd (I forgot to take a picture of the vinyl image on the plate so this is a picture from my screen):

Cut out the vinyl, removed the actual image so I just had the stencil, stuck it to my plate, and covered it with etching cream:

I washed off all of the goop, took off the vinyl and had this as my final product!:

Not too shabby, huh? I was pretty excited about it. Since this plate turned out well, I felt it was time to start my real project. I wanted to put a glass etched rose on a vase. And this is how it turned out:

I really like it! I was going to add the flowers I bought at Michael's to this vase, but they didn't look very good. So I took out the flowers Joseph gave me for Valentine's day last year (they were still drying in my closet), and placed them in the vase. At the bottom I added my red berry vines. I think it looks pretty great! Too bad the roses aren't alive ;) Then I think the vase would look perfect!

I linked this post up with Texas Monkey's Link Up Party and also Under the Table and Dreaming by Stephanie Lynn!

Account Hacked

Hey everyone. Just wanted to give you an FYI that my email address berman.stephanie@gmail.com and my facebook accounts were hacked last night. The person sent out an email saying I was stuck in London and to please send money. Please do not send that person money. I'm still at home in my pj's :) Sorry for the inconvenience!

Michael's Score!

My family gave me a $25 gift card to Michael's for Christmas. I wanted to stretch that as far as I could so I went in there one day and bought 2 pieces of scrapbook paper for $1.50 so I could get the 40% coupon that prints with your receipt. Except, they gave me a 50% off coupon instead! So awesome! I went back the next week to purchase my etching cream. I didn't realize this stuff was so expensive. For a 10 oz bottle it was $29. Luckily I had my 50% off coupon! So, with the remaining $23.50 on my gift card I bought glass etching cream and 2 bunches of gerbera daisies. Then, on my way out I spotted these red berry vines!

They were originially $6.99 and were marked down to $1.83! I love red berry vines so I picked up 3 bunches. I ended up paying 52 cents out of my own pocket. I thought I did a pretty good job for only $25!

So, my first attempt at glass etching was not a huge success. I think I failed because I did not put enough of the etching cream on. Here are the before and after pictures:

This is the design I chose from my silhouette which I printed out in vinyl and stuck to the glass. This is the finished project:

Pretty splotchy. It's ok though. That's why I do practice items first before I attempt my real project! (Which will be shown when it is finally done. It includes everything I purchased from Michael's on my gift card!... minus the scrapbook paper)

We're Back!

We're back from our trip and we had a great time! Disney World was SO much fun! And we had a great time in Massachusetts too, despite the blizzard and having to stay 3 extra days. Here are some pictures from our trip!

As for now, Joseph is back to work and I am still on medical leave for my jaw. It is starting to feel better though! I am starting to see light at the end of the tunnel!! I keep telling myself that this time it's different and that I'm not going to slip back into pain because I'm actually healing this time since I had the surgery. Positive thinking and LOTS of prayer :)

We spent New Year's Eve with our friends and had a great time! Good food, fun games and great company. We played the Newlywed Game, and seriously, one of the TV couples had crazy murderer eyes! Creepy and funny to watch :) (I'm a nice person on the inside :)). Hope you all had a wonderful time as well!

After the Yankee Swap

Joseph's First Time Shoveling. I let him have all of the fun with that. I've had my fair share of "fun" shoveling.

Playing Wii games

Our Snowmen

Rockin' Roller coaster. I waited a several years to ride this ride! It was awesome!

Fantasmic was Amazing!