WE'RE PREGNANT!! BABY COMING APRIL 2014

I'm pregnant!! We were so excited when we found out. I am 13 weeks right now and on Monday October 7th I will be 14 weeks! Our baby is due April 8th 2014. 

Dane and I had wanted to get pregnant for a while, we were just waiting for the right time. Our original plan was to start trying in September because I would be in my last semester and we thought it would be a great time. At the end of June we started thinking about getting pregnant sooner. I would be closer to the end of my first trimester and if I got sick this would be very nice. 

We decided to try in July. For some reason I have always had the fear that I wouldn't be able to get pregnant. Well I think I can put to rest all of my fears about being infertile because we got pregnant in the first week! And even before we took a test, somehow I knew I was pregnant. I can't really say how I knew it was just a feeling. 

Waiting to take a pregnancy test was so hard. Especially because I was at my family reunion and I just wanted to share the fact that I might be pregnant with everyone. I was late, but we waited another week just to be sure. I took a pregnancy test on my birthday at my house in Virginia and I filmed mine and Dane's response to looking at the test. I wanted to surprise Dane in a creative way saying I was pregnant but I also wanted to record my reaction to the news so I just decided we would look together. 

Best birthday present ever!

 We couldn't wait to tell my parents and we thought all day how we would do it. After several ideas we decided we would tell them at dinner with these wax straws they give to kids that Courtney usually gets. Dane would challenge Courtney to a design contest and Dane would write out “We’re Pregnant!”

So we get to dinner and Courtney doesn’t get the wax straws! So Dane has to mention to Courtney that he wanted to play with them. He challenged her and she accepted. Dane was so excited to spell everything out that we did it so quickly and Courtney was making this awesome elaborate picture. Dane finished so fast that by the time we made the reveal it was kinda hard to read! But my mom figured it out right away and all my sisters got so excited. Naturally I started crying.

Dane's Original

The Cleaner Version and Courtney's Creation

 Telling Dane’s parents was even trickier. They are serving as mission presidents in the Philippines. Dane was back at his job in Idaho and I was still in Virginia. We tried to group skype but that wasn’t working. So Dane called me on Facetime while he skyped with his parents. He told me to show them what I got for my birthday. I held up the baby clothes but it was so hard for them to see that they couldn’t really tell what was going on. Finally Dane gave them a hint and said “Think Smaller.” The light went off in Dane’s Mom’s head and she got very excited. I cried again! But Dane’s Mom was crying shortly after so at least I wasn’t the only one!

 I have had a pretty smooth pregnancy so far. I have had a little morning sickness at night but it comes and goes so fast and then I feel great again. The hardest thing to get use to is eating so much! I have to eat every two hours pretty much and it's so hard to keep up with that. If I forget to eat I get a little stomach sick but as soon as I eat I am fine! I do crave specific foods but it's nothing out of the ordinary. I crave dishes like Olive Garden Salad or pork burritos from Cafe Rio and of course Chick-fil-a.  I am still in my normal clothes but some things are starting to feel a little tight.

Right now I am 15 weeks! I am starting to see a little tiny bump and it is both exciting and weird to see! You can’t really notice it right now with in my street clothes but I will post a picture of my bump within a week or two. 

Our Favorite Trips Part 2: Africa

This next post in about my family’s trip to Africa last Christmas. The reason I waited so long to blog about this was because Dane was making a video and I wanted to include that in my blog post.

We spent a total of 17 days there, splitting our time between Tanzania and South Africa. 

We started with Tanzania and traveled to Ndtutu in the Serengeti. The company we stayed with was called &Beyond and they were amazing! We stayed in tents but they were the most luxurious tents I have ever seen complete with beds, sinks, a toilet and a shower out back. 

Our cars!

(ours and my parents tents had queen size beds)

We were woken up well before sunset each morning, but the wake up included hot chocolate and cookies. Best morning treat ever. 

We went on two game drives a day. One in the morning and one after lunch. Sometime we would eat breakfast or lunch out in the middle of nature and it was simply breathtaking and incredible that we were eating in the Serengeti. The food was delicious and I loved eating in our outdoor dinner tent. 

We celebrated Christmas at this camp and a Masai tribe came with authentic chants and dancing for us. They even had us get involved! You can see it in the video.

We saw so many animals which you can see in the video but I am in love with photo of a lion.

After we left the Serengeti we took a small plane to Lake Manyara. This camp was also beautiful. The game drives were a little different because we had to stay on the path and we couldn't go off road to find the animals. We also did a all day game drive at the Ngorongoro Crater which is pretty much a giant wildlife bowl that all of the animals were in. This camp had a lot of baboons and I discovered that I don't like/am scared of these guys. They aren't shy animals and they will come right up to you and take your stuff or your food. One even stole the cookies right out of our guide’s hands. 

Our next stop was in South Africa. We took a small plane to Kruger and stayed at the Ngala lodge. This was my favorite place we went to. If I could go back to only one place this would be it. We did two game drives a day here as well.

We saw so many animals here and we saw something that is hard to see in Africa. We saw a leopard hunt and kill a baby warthog. It was fascinating but it also made me sad to see and hear (We have some footage in the video). The food here was mouth watering. They had so many options but one of my favorite things was the waffles and ice cream. 

(our first dinner at this camp. It was beautiful!)

After leaving this lodge we flew to Cape Town, South Africa where we stayed in a hotel. This place was interesting because it didn't feel like we were in Africa anymore. We were surrounded by people, buildings and restaurants. Our first night there we went down to the boardwalk and enjoyed a nice dinner by the water. We ate all kinds of food here like Italian and Japanese. 

The three things we did here were watch the cheetahs run and pet them, cage dive with Great White sharks and hike Cape Point. Petting the Cheetahs was a incredible experience. We saw them in the wild and now we were actually up close and personal with such a powerful animal. The cage diving was a once in a lifetime experience. I am terrified of sharks and to be eye level with Great White gave me a slight panic attack but I am so glad I did it and I might even do it again. 

This was definitely one of our favorite trips and we would go back in a heartbeat. In fact Dane and I have promised ourselves that we will go back with our own kids someday.

Here is a link to the Africa Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShNaD3PQlJg

Here is a link to a music video my sisters and I made:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qosQMB5cwE

 Cute baby elephant

This shows how close we got to some of the animals!

I love these trees!