Call us crazy.

Guess what.

Yep. We couldn't stay away. 

We were literally counting down the days till I had Archer because that meant we could get cats again! As some of you know, we had to baby kitties in December that we loved! But unfortunately allergies got the best of us; they were long haired cats. Also having cats while being pregnant supposedly isn't good...so we had to give mowgli and peanut away :(

BUT!

I had archer, life got *somewhat* settled and today on Facebook I saw that best friends animal shelter was having a promotion on baby kitties because they had too many. I asked Brandon what he thought (like I even had to ask, I knew the answer) and he jumped right on that! 

So we packed up baby and headed to salt lake to pick up two more children. It took a while of playing with all the kitties to feel a connection (yes we are those weird people who have to connect with their animals) but finally we found Forrest and Dyson! 

It was seriously the cutest thing. Dyson walked right up to me meowing and I was instantly in love. 

And Forrest was being held by a lady when we first got there, but her daughter wanted another cat. She was telling us how she visits several times a week just to play with the cats and loved little Forrest. So we played with him and he is such a little cuddle ball. 

Ugh we are so in love, and I don't even care that everyone hates cats. WE LOVE CATS AND WE ARE PROUD-spongebob reference.... Ya know? Where he thinks he is ugly but it's really just his breath?-

Anyway we are happy and now we have four kids!

Sharky, Forrest, Dyson and Archer! 

^ Dyson; he is seriously so so tiny it's adorable.

^ Forrest; not the best picture but he is such a calm little kitty!

^ and duh. Can't forget baby Archer. I can't get enough of him. Plus he is ONE MONTH on Wednesday. Wow.

^and sharky boy. He is a punk. He killed his five siblings. 

Summer 2014

to say 'this summer has been stressful' would be the understatement of FOREVER.
As some of you know, Brandon was the ceramics teacher at Pleasant Grove High School. his students absolutely l o v e d him! He made amazing friend-ships and helped out many kids with drug addiction, attendance problems, and was just someone all his kids could go to to talk and get things off their chest. he did great things at that school. he raised thousands of dollars to get clay, throwing wheels and supplies...but unfortunately not everyone saw what brandon was doing, and also brandon didn't exactly jump through all the 'hoops' the people wanted him to. Brandon is a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of guy and it just wasn't what they wanted.
Teachers don't work during the summer, obviously, so Brandon applied at DoTerra and got a job in the call center just to make a little extra cash over the summer to put towards baby diapers(those things are so blasted expensive!).  he started training for DoTerra last may, while school was still in, and then started in the call center the first of June. just a week after school ended we got a lovely letter in the mail basically saying Brandon would not be a teacher at PGHS anymore.
it might not have been a big deal if i wasnt pregnant and going on maternity leave the middle of july, or if we didn't have a mortgage, or car payments, or if we wanted to starve..haha! it wasn't good at all.
Brandon would continue to get paid from alpine school district through august and he had his call center job.. but that job was hardly enough to cover half out bills. He frantically started searching for a job because once august hit we would be SOL.
Many schools called Brandon to interview him but we were always a step behind, every school he applied to, they would interview him, having someone else in mind for the job. we were so stressed and my job at the salon had hit a slow couple weeks so i wasn't making what i normally do.
that was seriously the longest couple months of my life!
DoTerra was hiring a few positions and only offering them to employees already with the company. Brandon applied to two of them, and got called in for an interview in mid july. the lady who interview him said she was very interested in hiring him for a new position that hadn't even been made yet. when i heard that i was so worried that it would end up not working out because that how our summer had been, literally brandon went to probably ten interviews just in that month and a half and didn't score one of the jobs.
anyway, two weeks passed and we heard nothing. it was the end of july and i was done working and waiting for our baby to come. just a few days before Archer was born, Brandon got a call offering him a corporate job up in DoTerra as a Training Coordinator for DoTerra International.
i swear that is what put me into labor; the stress being lifted from our shoulders haha. it was such a blessing! He started his first day the next week and has been there three weeks now!
i am so beyond grateful for my amazing husband and all his hard work. he was so determined to give us all that we need, he was willing to work several jobs to cover our bills. this job came just in time and he loves it.
it was a stressful summer and we didn't know if we would have to sell our condo or baby (kidding) but it worked out and i start back to work the first of september! we are counting our blessings for sure.

in honor of all the kids starting back to school today, and my husband not starting  back to school (which he is so grateful for now, he loves his new job!) i took this cute picture of him and his new haircut and cheetah bow tie. i love love love him so much. my sexy business man.

Archer Michael Berrett: birth story.

I now completely understand all those women you see in public places just letting their ba-donks out to Brest feed their baby.

But let's start from the beginning.

It was our wedding night...haha just kidding. Not that far back. 

 So my last post I explained how on that Monday I got my membranes stripped and it basically did nothing. Obviously. It either works in two days or not at all. 

Continuing on with that story; So that week rolls on and my cute husband still has me in baby boot camp; pine apple, walking curbs, raspberry leaf tea, bouncing on the exercise ball, doing the dirty, we seriously did EVERYTHING to get this baby out and I just never felt different. Contractions here and there, even ones I could count, but it just never got bad.

Sunday morning, July-27, I woke up to another one of those light contractions around 8:30 am. I didn't think anything of it and grabbed my phone to do my morning routine of social media, and about five minutes later it hit me again. Another light contraction. I still wasn't worried or getting excited but I had a feeling this time might be different. I started timing them and by the time Brandon work up around 10:00 it had been a solid hour and a half of contractions every five minutes. They still weren't super bad but they were getting there! We laid in bed for a minute and I finally mentioned to him what was going on. He asked what we should do and duh! I had to get my makeup on! Haha so I started getting ready for the day, I just had to pause for those dang contractions! Brandon maybe had a slight freak out and started going ham on cleaning the house. Not like picking up dirty laundry, like move everything out of the kitchen and get down on your hands and knees! 

By the time I had done my makeup and hair I could hardly walk when the contractions hit, they were still 5 minutes apart but getting bad. We called our parents and told them what was happening and decided to go to the hospital just to get checked out.

One thing hospitals do that expecting mothers don't know about; if you go into labor before your due date, they won't believe you. The nurses make you sit in a room for up to an hour with the machine monitoring you. 

We got to american fork hospital right before noon and they pulled me back into a room and checked my cervix, I was dilated to a 3.5. She hooked me up to a machine and left. Oh boy was that hour P U R E. H E L L. 

My contractions were every minute or two at that point and beyond painful poor Brandon had no idea what to do! My older sister had her cute boy all natural (she is crazy) and was telling me little tips and tricks on how to keep your body calm to help the contractions. I call bull shit on all of that. There is no such thing to help contractions Haha. They are of the devil and that's it. 

Okay so after the hour in that room the nurse comes back and checks me, lucky I had progressed so they could admit me! At 1:00 I was dilated to a 4.5.

So we move rooms and luckily the Anistesologist (did I spell that right?) was right there waiting and I got my epidural fast! Epidurals don't hurt, but there is like annoying pressure and a baby poke as he is doing it. The worst part was the antibiotics I had to get in my IV for being positive for what is called 'group B Strep'. It's nothing crazy but I need it to prevent the baby from getting it. The antibiotic was penicillin. It hurt so so so so bad going through my arm! For a good five minutes I felt like my arm was going to fall off, it probably would have been better if it had. 

*From here on my story moves pretty dang quick so hang in there! I'm sorry this is such a long post!*

So once I got my epidural, our families and my good friend Madie show up. I was feeling so freaking good at that point, watching the monitor say my contractions were twice the strenght they were before, but I COULDN'T FEEL A THING! It was amazing. 

The nurse came back to check me, I was at a 6 at 2:30 pm! Progressing very fast. My doctor showed up at 3:30 to break my water and I was dilated to an 8. By 4:15 I was a full 10 dilated and ready to push! What amazing feeling that is. I couldn't feel anything down there so I really didn't know if I was pushing, but the people in the delivery room all kept saying, 'look at all that hair!' Haha so I figured I was doing good. 

Fifteen minutes later or beautiful Archer made his was into this world. Screaming and waving his long fingers around. 7lbs 1oz and 19 inches long. He is perfect. Absolutely perfect. 

A few things about after delivery: emotions are off the chart; way worse then during pregnancy, nurses have to push on your stomach to check everything and it hurts really bad, and you dread going to the bathroom. 

Breast feeding is really hard.. But we are getting the hang of it. My little man is the light of our world and we love him so much. I am just so happy to be home now!

This is my world and I could stare at it all day. I couldn't have asked for a better husband. He has done beyond what I asked everytime and goes so far out of his way for our family. He is such an amazing father.

Eviction notice.

Well I have hit full term! Although these days, most doctors don't consider you full term until around 39 weeks, I am 37 and a half weeks and ready to be done! 

Yesterday at my doctors appointment I was dilated to a 3 and fully effaced...how can I be FULLY EFFACED and not be in labor?! 

My doctor literally laughed when he checked me and said I was fully effaced. Me and Brandon still have no idea what we are doing so we were like, 'well what now?' Haha. I really like my doctor! (Side note: he actually delivered me and all my siblings! And now my baby, pretty cool!) so I definitely want him to be the one to deliver my babe, even though all he does is come in at the last part and then leave..

Anyway. This is on a Monday right? So doctor Corey tells me and Brandon that he will be gone from Wednesday night to Saturday night and he wants us to meet his partner doctor incase I go into labor while he is gone. Grrrrreat. Of course that would happen to me, Have my baby while my doctor is out of town. So basically we have two days to have this thing or hope he stays in till next week which is VERY unlikely to happen. 

I asked my doctor how he felt about stripping my membrabes and he agreed immediately. With how far along I already was he felt like I would come fast. 

For those who don't know, membrane stripping is... Well freak I don't even know. Google it. Some uncomfortable thing he does to my cervix or uterus wall that separates two things from each other? Haha but it's supposed to help induce labor. What I DO know about it is it either works within 24-48 hours or won't work at all. 

For some weird reason I freaked out and decided I didn't want to strip my membranes.. So me and Brandon left the Doctors and Brandon headed to work. 

A couple hours later after talking to my sister and mom we decided it couldn't hurt anything! If it works, great! If not, we are back to square one, wondering if he will come while my doctor is gone. Oh! And my in-laws would be gone that same time also. Awesome huh?

I called my doctor around 12:30 pm and told him I had changed my mind and wanted to come back to strip my membranes, he said to come back in right then! Ah! So I drive back, got it done, and went over to my parents house. Membrane stripping does not hurt p.s. It it's just very uncomfortable. 

So I colored my sisters hair and we went to mosey around the DI. By then it was about 3:30 and I was already spotting (gross, sorry) and cramping. So I was getting excited! 

Brandon got off work and we met back at our house. He turned into a freaking drill Sargent and was trying to make me down red raspberry leaf tea, walk curbs and anything else we could think of or google that induces labor haha. 

We went to the store and bought a pineapple, I found some crazy pregnancy dance that made Brandon pee his pants laughing while he watched me do it, and I took a nap:). Last night about 9:00 pm we went out to walk curbs and stairs and my legs were already sore from that dang pregnancy dance! But we walked for about 20 minutes before i was done and tired. 

After I cooled off, our baby was dancing around inside me and Brandon got to feel his little feet popping out of my sides for a good half an hour! I love when Brandon gets to feel him:). 

I just wish he could feel his feet OUTSIDE my body haha! 

I went to sleep last night with some pretty knarly cramping and mild contractions...it is now 5:00 pm on Tuesday, so about 29 hours since the stripping... And no baby. But contractions are happening so that is a plus. Another plus is I don't need my kitchen table anymore!! I have my own built-in table to hold all this nasty pineapple I am trying to eat. Lets hope hope hope baby Berrett comes tomorrow! 

large and in charge.

With only five weeks till my due date and a baby who is trying to come early, I can't help but look back on the last month and how much I have changed! Right now baby Berrett is measuring almost 5 pounds and 18 inches long! He definitely is a mover and loves to stretch out up in my ribs. Even though I have been having either contractions or R E A L L Y painful Braxton hicks, I'm kind of sad to have this baby! Every night as I'm falling asleep, and when I wake up, just laying in bed, he goes crazy. I swear I can see his little toes as his feet kick out of my sides. I love my quiet time with our little man. It's the most amazing feeling ever, knowing I am lucky enough to carry a human inside me. 

BUT! On the flip side, I get to be a freaking mom and I want this kid out of me so I can make sure he isn't ugly.... I'm really worried he might be funny looking. I mean me and Brandon are pretty dang sexy;) but sometimes cute couples have ugly kids... Either way I know we will love him. And if not there is always plastic surgery.... Haha kidding! I'm so mean. 

Although the last few weeks of belly pictures have been making me rreeaallllyy sad, it's funny to see how baby Berrett's position makes my stomach really poop out, sit lower, or seem (somewhat) small(ish). 

^If only you could see my pants in this picture, I had on normal jeans and I'm pretty sure the pony tail holding them together was about to pop. 

^baby Berrett sticks his butt out and it's the funniest thing, but it makes my belly look kind of pokey looking like in this picture. 

^i don't know what the crap went down this week but I was HUGE! Very round and... Huge. This is the week I had a melt down and cried to my husband haha.

^And the most recent picture. Still big, but not like the last picture. My back constantly hurts, I am out of breath walking the 30 seconds from my house to my work, and my most favorite treat of all time (popcorn) makes me sick. 

But seriously. Over all I love being pregnant, It was meant for me. I have one pretty perfect life I must say. 

Sneak peek

Like most people, we are keeping our baby's name a secret...unless you ask me, then I'll tell you haha. But we also don't want to go flaunting the nursery around either! We are so freaking excited for it to come together and we are getting so close:). 

Baby Berrett already has more clothes then me! He is definitely going to be a romper baby, i mean seriously, those things couldn't get any cuter. We are still debating on what his outfit will be to come home from the hospital, but right now it's that cute little jean romper in the front! Beauty before comfort right? ;)

I had to sneak a peek of Brandon's favorite thing about the nursery, Because it's pretty freaking awesome. I just can't wait!! 

These are our colors:) plus a little gold here and there. I cannot wait for it all to be finished! Little Berrett is already one spoiled baby...and I love it. 

Last night me and Brandon had A 'oh crap' moment, realizing we are less then 8 weeks from having our sweet boy. I guess you can only prepare so much for something you've never had, we couldn't be more excited and nervous:).

Baby vogue

Pregnancy brings a lot of discomfort to your life. You feel chubby and tired all the time, your feet swell up, you get stretch marks, your extremely hormonal, it's seriously a joyous time;).

But really. Pregnancy to me feels like it was meant for me. Besides all the downfalls it has, it's the most amazing feeling knowing I'm growing a HUMAN inside me. SO CRAZY! It blows my freaking mind every time our baby boy moves inside me. I could cry. Sometimes I do haha, hormones, what to ya do. 

But it's still hard. Its hard having to lean forward to see my own swollen toes, It's hard walking up after a wonderful 8 hours of sleep and feeling like a bus hit me, I'm a l w a y s tired. And it's hard seeing my body get bigger and the scale go up as I gain weight. 

I absolutely love pregnant bellies and seeing girls take the cutest maternity pictures! My good friend Madie who I've known since we were wee little things offered to take some pictures for us! What better way to feel better about my body then to look damn sexy with my hott hubs in a photo shoot, so I said yes! 

It was a drama-filled couple of weeks trying to find outfits, I almost killed the kid working at forever21 but that's a whole other story...

But last night we met up with mads and I just am drooling over how they turned out. She is amazing! So here is your overload of our maternity pictures:)

If I had to choose a favorite, it would probably be this one.. :) 

Or this one because it's just steamy;)

So feel free to send any of these to baby vogue magazine if there is such a thing.