Alora's Birth Story

            Apparently I have been incredibly busy with work and Jaron with school that I haven’t blogged in forever.  So much has happened in our lives since I last posted.  The most exciting was a few weeks ago. 

            Christmas break was approaching and we were still trying to decide if we would go down to Utah for Christmas to spend it with Jaron’s family.  I was four weeks from my due date when Christmas break started and we were just waiting for our doctors appointment to see if we would be able to go down or not.  We spent the weekend before Christmas getting stuff done around the house and just relaxing.  Jaron had just finished an incredibly tough semester and we were both ready to unwind for a week until I went back to work. 

            On Monday we decided we should pack just in case we could go to Utah.  We packed the stuff we usually pack.  Nothing out of the ordinary, not knowing we would need anything different. 

            Christmas Eve came, but it sure didn’t feel like Christmas Eve.  We are usually with family just spending time together.  Ours was a little less traditional.  Shortly after we woke up we headed to our appointment.  This wasn’t just an ordinary appointment; we got to see our little baby girl to measure her size.  Since I had gestational diabetes this appointment would tell us her size and any other things that they noticed.  She was healthy and a good size.  Nothing the be concerned about.  When we saw the doctor we asked him about going down to Utah for a few days.  Since I was still 36 weeks and the baby wasn’t too big or anything he said to go.  Before we left the office we had my medical records printed, just in case something were to happen. 

            We got home and packed the car with everything we needed along with the car seat just incase.  When we left our house we made a quick stop in Rigby to drop something off for Jaron’s aunt and uncle.  They were making jokes about Jaron having to deliver our baby girl on the side of the freeway.  Asking if we had towels and scissors back in the car for him.  At the time it was funny, looking back on it I am so glad we didn’t travel when we were planning on it.  When we left their house, we spent our Christmas Eve traveling home.  We made it to Jaron’s parents house just in time for Christmas Eve dinner. 

            The rest of the week went on as any other week would.  We spent it relaxing and working on a 3,000 piece puzzle.  Jaron thought it would be a fun activity for us all to work on.  Little did he know 3,000 pieces is a lot and would take forever. 

            On Thursday I started having some back pains.  I thought it was just pain from being on my feet and sitting in the car for so long while driving down to Utah.  It wasn’t anything too bad and it went away when I would lay on heat, and wearing the pregnancy back brace helped. 

            The pain continued for the next few days, but never got worse.  I continued to enjoy my Christmas break and spend time with family. 

            Saturday we spent time with the family celebrating Cannon’s birthday.  We had a great time at Texas Roadhouse and I was feeling great.  Along with Cannon’s birthday it marked my 37 weeks.  At this point we were counting down to three weeks till babies arrival.  Our plan was to leave for Idaho Sunday morning so we could get back with a few days before I went back to work.  Since I was feeling fine and everyone would be home on Sunday we decided to leave Monday morning.  Sunday I woke up feeling the same as I had the entire week.  Not in anymore pain than I had been experiencing.  Around two my back started to hurt a little more.  It still wasn’t anything horrible.  Just felt like I had been teaching all week.  After dinner, I took a nice hot back thinking it would help.  When I got out of the bath my back felt better.

            Once all the kids were down for bed we started watching Duck Dynasty.  I had been getting up and walking around since my back was hurting a little more at this point.  It still wasn’t anything unbearable.  I thought I had just overdone it over the holidays.  After sitting for a few minutes I stood up and walked over to the kitchen, and this is when it all started. 

            I had the strangest sensation as if I had wet my pants.  I started to walk right to the bathroom when Jaron called my name.  I turned to him and asked him what he needed.  I thought he was calling me because I was covered in water.  Apparently not, he just said never mind.  When I got to the bathroom I kind of started to panic.  There was blood and water.  I didn’t even think about my water breaking since I was still three weeks away from my due date. Once I was in full-blown panic mode I called Jaron into the bathroom.  I had to yell his name a few times before he even came in.  Once he saw my situation he had his mom, who was a nurse, come in and check the situation.  After she checked me she told Jaron we needed to go to the hospital right away.  At this point I didn’t know exactly what was going on.  I knew I was in labor but no one let me know how far I was. 

            We got into the car and headed strait to the hospital.  The ride to the hospital felt like it was 45 minutes long. I don’t remember contractions being too painful.  The hardest thing was not to push.  I had so much pressure that it felt natural to push.  Gail told me to keep my legs closed and breath slow. Breathing slow was another hard thing.  It helped me not to push, but that was a huge challenge.  Five minutes later we were at the hospital.  Jaron had called ahead to have someone down with a wheelchair to wheel me up to labor and delivery.  I was in full blown shock and started giving this poor guy my medical history thinking he would know what to do with me.  Looking back on it he probably thought I was a crazy lady. 

            When I got up to the labor floor they took me to a check up room.  I don’t think they believed I was in labor.  They said it was my first baby and the contractions were probably just getting stronger.  When the nurse checked me her reaction brought me by surprise.  She told us I was +3.  When she told me that I asked if I could get an epidural.  Everyoen I talked to said you need an epidural.  You will be miserable and want to die without one.  So since that was what I had always been told you could see why I would panic when she said there was no time.  My reaction to her response, “Am I going to die?” Yes I leterally asked if I was going to die. Hopefully she got a kick out of that.  She then left Jaron and I alone in the room.  They had to rush to call the on call doctor since there wasn’t one there.  Once she left, I told Jaron she needed to get back right away because I was going to have that baby right away.  Jaron went and got her and I was wheeled into the delivery room. 

            In the short time that this was happening my mother-in-law saw an OB that she knew.  In the short conversation they had she found out I was in labor, no doctor was available, and she asked if we needed a doctor and the response was yes. 

            I only remember a little of what happened in the deliver room.  It all happened too fast.  A lot of it was told to me after the fact.  The doctor from the hallway walked in and checked me.  I remember her saying she could see hair.  She gave me a shot and told me to push.  Jaron was holding one leg, my mother-in-law Gail held the other.  Two pushes later Alora was with us. 

            Once she was with us I was admitted into the hospital.  When they asked if I wanted any pain medicine I didn’t need any.  I decided to take an ibuprofen just in case I had pain after. 

            This all happened within fifteen minutes of Jaron walking into the bathroom when I called his name.  I can honestly say it wasn’t the birth story I was planning on.  I was planning on having everything with us at the hospital I neede, being there for hours, a ton of pain, getting an epidural, having an IV drip and all the other fun stuff associated with labor.  Defiantly not what I was expecting, but worth it.  She was perfect in every way. 

Jaron is such a good dad.  He never left her side. 

            I think the funniest part of the delivery had to be the reactions of our family.  Jaron had sent his sister a text telling her I was in labor.  By the time she read the text and called Alora was in my arms and Jaron answered the phone.  Jaron tried calling my parents but neither of them answered the phone so he called my sister Haylie.  When he told her Alora was here she thought he was joking.  She sure was a surprise. 

            I sure hope all of my labors are that easy.  Maybe not so fast. All of the nurses and doctors warned me that my next one will come faster.  Oh goodness! Fifteen minutes was fast enough.  For the next few days after Alora was born Jaron and I kept talking about how good it was she was born in Utah.  If my water broke while I was teaching I would have had a baby at the school.  There wouldn’t have been any time to even get to the hospital.  I am so glad I didn’t traumatize my students with that experience!

One Year

Lately Jaron and I have been extremely busy.  Along with living in separate states we were both working.  We are finally back living together in our brand spanking new apartment. 

    Sine I last posted Jaron and I celebrated our one-year anniversary.  It is amazing how fast time goes by when you are with your best friend and the person you love so much.

     When our one-year came up I was living in Idaho and Jaron was working for the state of Utah. Jaron was in charge of planning our little get away.  He planned on me getting down late Friday night and then me having to leave Sunday afternoon.  Of course I was so excited to go down and see my man but I was not okay with seeing him for that short of time.  I was able to change my work schedule and I was going to surprise Jaron.

     When I arrived at his house I made a heart garland and strung it across the door and rang the doorbell.  Apparently Jaron was right by the door and opened it as I was running to hide.  He grabbed the garland and shut the door thinking I was some creeper.  I pushed the door open and he looked at me like I was a stranger.  Three weeks is way too long to be away from your spouse I guess.

    The next day we went off to celebrate.  I had no idea what we were doing.  Jaron drove up Sundance and I freaked out.  I was not dressed to go snowboarding and I was getting upset.  He then parked and said we were going to the Tree Room.  Just a little side note…I forgot my camera battery so these pictures were not taken by me.

   The restaurant was gorgeous and the food was to die for.  We ate: salad, scallops, steaks, duck, and some amazing sides.  When we were done with dinner we headed off to Midway.  Jaron convinced me we were going to hang out with his brother and his wife.  I was kind of confused and annoyed at the fact that we were celebrating our one-year with other people.   Turns out he surprised me again.  He took me to the Crater.  I first saw the crater on the Bachelor and I told Jaron I really wanted to go. 

  It was so much fun and it was a great way to end the night.  When we got back to the car Jaron turned the wrong way and into the parking of the Zermatt. 

We spent the evening relaxing and just spending time together.  Along with doing nothing but have a blast together we ate our second dinner at the Zermatt.  We had the best tomato basil pizza.  We then woke up and shared a blueberry muffin and ice cream for breakfast. 

I could not have planned a better weekend for the two of us.  I think I will put Jaron in charge every year.  I am lucky to have married the most amazing man I have ever met.  

Latest in our lives

For the past month Jaron and I have been living apart.  He has been working for the division in Utah and I have been working as a manager at the local Hollister.  It has been great.  We are both gaining life experience that will help us throughout the rest of our lives.  On Wednesday of this week I got a package in the mail. It was a piece of paper that will pretty much define the rest of my life. I got my Idaho Teaching Certificate.  The day after that I had a job interview.  I went in for the interview and two hours later I got a call from the principal offering me a job.  Obviously I accepted and was so excited.  I am extremely happy and so blessed with our our little life is starting to turn out how we want it too.  I never thought I would get a teaching job so quickly.  I was wrong....a little over three months after graduating I have a job in the fall.  Jaron and I are so excited for this journey in our lives and cant wait for it to get started.  Jaron had a change in in plans as well.  He was a Human Biology major and as of Friday he changed it to Exercise Physiology.  Apparently if he was Human Biology they estimated his graduation date to be in 2016. That is a little bit too far down the road.  This new major has all of the prerequisites for med school which will make him graduate much sooner.  All I have to say is that this week has been amazing for our little family.
That's all for now.  We will keep you posted on how everything goes.

The First 365 Days

365 days have passed since we got married. Everyday has been amazing and I have loved every minute of being married to my best friend and most amazing man I know.

365 days later Jaron is still able to make me laugh.   365 days later he still knows how to make me feel like I am the only other person on this planet. 365 days later I find myself falling in love with Jaron more than I ever thought was possible.

365 days have passed since we were sealed for time and all eternity.  365 days have passed and many more days to come.

Happy Anniversary Jaron. I love you so much and can't to see what the next year has in store for us.

And now the adventure begins of starting the next chapter. 

Muscle Man

      Jaron and I have been living at his parents house for a week looking for jobs.  We were planning on staying down here until April or so but I landed a job up in Idaho so we are heading back up in  few days.  While we have been down here we have basically been relaxing and helping his parents out around the house.  After relaxing all day it had snowed about four inches and we were asked to shovel the driveway.  Naturally I was really excited because I had only shoveled the driveway once before and that was a year ago.  After getting halfway done we decided to build a snowman with muscles.  We ran inside and put clothes on that were suitable for playing in the snow and rushed back out.  I learned how to roll the body of a snowman.  After living in Idaho for four winters I had never built a snowman.  I may have when I was a lot younger but I had no recollection of it.  We spent over an hour on our little fella.  Our snowman was going to be perfect, we chiseled away bulges with a knife, filled holes, and gave him eyes and a mouth with rocks. He became our muscle man...who knew making arms out of snow would be so difficult.   Finally, he was done and Jaron celebrated by tackling me in the snow.  After tackling me we attacked Craig (Jarons dad) with snowballs while he was feeding the horses.  We are not the best at sneaking up on us because he was able to hide in the shed before we got to him.

     We ended the night by jumping on the trampoline.  Apparently it was a childhood memory of Jarons.  I am so grateful for the little moments in our life that create life long memories.  It has almost been one year since we were sealed in the temple and I have never been happier.

Our First Christmas

It has been forever since I last wrote about what has been going on in our lives! I will do my best to write about everything that has happened.

            My last day of college was right before the Thanksgiving break.  It was kind of bitter sweet but it was really neat.  The school had their first quarter AR reading assembly and there was a camel.  I don’t have any pictures of me with it.  I was supposed to kiss the camel because of how many books my kids read but…I kind of pulled away because it was going to eat my face and it wasn’t the best smelling animal I had ever been around, None the less it was a once in a lifetime opportunity and I am so happy I was able to touch the lives of my students.  I miss them but I cant wait to have a classroom of my own!

            I wish I had something to write about the Thanksgiving break but Jaron and I were both sick the entire time.  We did have the opportunity to spend time with Jarons relatives who came down from Alaska.  While in Utah over the break we were able to go to the Leonardo museum in Salt Lake.  It was no Ronald Regan Library or California Science Center but I was open to something new.  The museum is based on inventions and other cool thins.  We were able to see how prosthetic limbs work, green screens, energy reactions, and a bunch of other neat things.  The best part of this museum was the fact that it was all hands on and we were able to participate in all of the displays.  Thank goodness for hand sanitizer.

            Once the break was over we headed back up to Idaho for Jaron to finish fall semester.  The last few weeks of the semester included a TON of reading.  I have a feeling will have many more books to read for his schooling.  Along with Jaron finishing the semester strong we were able to throw our ward Christmas party.  This year the Sunday school was in charge.  I wish I could post pictures but because we were in charge we had to wait on everyone.  I decided at the moment I would HATE being a waitress.  Once the semester ended with an amazing GPA for Jaron we packed our stuff and headed down to Utah for two weeks.  The strangest part about leaving Idaho was that it was December 22 and there was still no snow on the ground.  Normally there is a ton of snow by October.

            We spent our first few days in Utah just relaxing and spending time with family. We went and saw Mission Impossible 4 with the family and spent time playing games.  Along with relaxing we were running around doing last minute shopping and preparing for Christmas Eve Dinner.  Christmas Eve finally came and that’s when chaos entered into the Clyde house.  Jarons parents invited all of their children to sleep at their house and have a huge Christmas.  This wouldn’t seem that crazy but they have four children plus their spouses.  Two of them have children adding six more to the mix.  Once the kids were all down to bed last minute wrapping, stocking stuffing, assembling toys, and placing of presents took over. After doing that for a few hours 1:45 came really quick and Jaron and I headed to bed. A few short hours later at 5:50 our alarms went off.  Yes, we had to set alarms because we don’t have kids and the rest of the kids wake up around 6. If we were going to do Christmas as a family we needed something to force us out of bed. 

            The grandkids and the two of us all lined up on the stairs.  All of the Clyde children were supposed to be in the pictures but they were taking pictures of their own kids.  There was also some bread in the mix.  Apparently when the Clyde children were younger they were forced to eat a piece of bread before they were allowed to go out into the living room.  I guess they needed food in their stomachs before eating their body weight in candy.

            Once the children were off the stairs it was chaos.  Wrapping paper was being thrown everywhere.  There was screaming and laughing and “are you sure this had the right name on it?”  I learned that Christmas with children is way different than what I am used to with my family.  After everything was all done and said there was assembling everywhere. 

            Overall Christmas was a success.  It ended in everyone taking naps after church but nonetheless it was amazing.

            The week after Christmas was spent relaxing and babysitting..  I got to spend four days with the cutest kids ever.  Colby and Emma had a blast playing with their toys and coloring the house Grandma got them.  We also went to see Alvin and the Chipmunks and we went to the Dinosaur Museum. 

            After babysitting for a week it was time to celebrate the New Year.  I can honestly say spending New Years as a married couple is a lot different then I remembered New Years as a single lady.  We played games for hours, played Just Dance 3, then watched the ball drop and started out the New Year with an amazing kiss from my adorable husband.  After the sparks were done flying we then went on the porch and watched the neighbors light fireworks.  We then played Wii tennis for an hour and we were off to bed.

            The last big event of our trip was the boys traditional bunny shooting.  They call it Rabbit shooting because they claim the rabbits they shoot are ugly and have nasty red eyes.  However, I will always call it bunny hunting.  The boys left really early in the morning and came home after not seeing any rabbits.  I guess it wasn’t a successful hunting trip but they still had fun together.

            Jaron and I are finally back in our small little Rexburg apartment and loving every minute we spend together. 

Well, I think I have been the worst blogger there is.  So a lot has happened since we have updated everyone on our lives.

            Since we blogged last we have done a few things that are blog worthy.  Most of our time has been spend on school.  Our usual days consist of getting home around five, making dinner, and then doing homework. Because of our schedules we don’t do anything that exciting.  Even though we are incredibly busy with school we have managed to fit in a few things that are note worthy.

            We headed up to Island Park and spent time with Mitch and some old friends.  It was such a nice get away.  We had a bonfire and ate a ton of food! The next morning the plan was to go to Yellowstone but the road was closed due to weather. So we changed our plans and headed to Big River and Mesa Falls. 

            We then celebrated our first Halloween as a married couple.  When we were engaged we didn’t do anything to celebrate Halloween because we were in school and we were not supporters of activities on campus. So of course we wanted to do something fun this year.  Our ward was having a Halloween Party and we figured that was good enough for us.  The hardest thing for us was to come across a couple’s costume.  My friend had a Sully suit so it was decided. We dressed up as Sully and Boo from Monsters Inc. and I think we looked adorable. 

            The week after Halloween Jaron and I finally went out on  a date! We never go out because time is not really something we have.  But our friends were going to the Chinese Acrobatic show on campus and we all decided to go.  We had a blast and we had so much fun watching insane tricks.  It was a show I think everyone should see.