World Traveler, Baby Prep, and the Big Move!

Stephen has been on a couple of school trips since I last posted. They went to New Delhi, India a couple of months ago and I JUST got to see these couple of pictures. He barely took any and didn't bother to even show those ones to me. That is how much he hated India. I still think it might be a cool place to go but I will have to find anther travel companion.

He just got home from Russia yesterday and he really loved it there. He was in St. Petersburg mostly and it looked dreamy. We will definitely be going back there together someday.

I have had three fun showers over the last couple of months. It is so fun to get together with family and friends and have everyone be excited about my baby with me. Everyone has been so generous and we have been so spoiled!

My mom and sisters threw me a family shower the weekend of Spencer's wedding so that everyone could be there (hectic timing)

Judy and Jessica threw me a family shower that was so adorable!

Lyla was a trooper (terror) at all of the showers.

I love this picture of the girls even though it's blurry (I apologize to Chris for all of the camera phone pictures in this post. I always feel like I have to apologize to Chris for that but I am just lucky if I make it out with a picture at all and it's even more remarkable if I am the one who took the picture. I am working on it. Also Chris is probably not even reading or looking at this.)

And last but not least, Robyn and I had a joint ward/neighborhood shower. It's been so fun to be pregnant with Robyn and I was so glad we could have this shower together with all of our neighborhood friends. (Wearing the same shirt was an accident to the first two showers but I realized it then and still wore the same one to number three).

Thank you to everyone who helped with or came to these fun showers!

A couple of weeks ago Stephen and I had a belated anniversary trip planned. We were too busy the week of our actual anniversary so we picked another weekend and Stephen claimed the planning responsibilities. He totally surprised me with a trip to Banff Canada! Unfortunately it wasn't until AFTER we landed in Calgary that they told us there was major flooding and we essentially couldn't even leave the airport. We had to fly all day to get back home. It was sad but we took advantage of the refunds and the time off Stephen already had taken and had a fun weekend in Salt Lake anyhow. We turned off our phones and put them away for the whole weekend, which was fabulous, except that we also forgot to bring our camera so we only have this one picture. It's a belly shot at La Caille where we ate Sunday brunch (I have ALWAYS wanted to go there with Stephen, it did NOT disappoint). I believe I was 31 weeks in this picture. 

And to round off a mega large post, Stephen and I are moving this week! Stephen got a job offer in June to work for Lowe's Home Improvement at their corporate headquarters, just outside of Charlotte, North Carolina. It was a stressful decision but we are going for it and we haven't looked back! We are really excited for this new adventure. We will be in a new place with a new job and a new baby.

I had to squeeze in this post before the move because I have a goal to stay as up to date on this blog as possible for all of our Utah friends and family, and things are going to start happening quick over this next month. Stay tuned!

May

May has been the month of family time for us! We have had so many major family events, it's crazy! We have been loving it. Here is the month in pictures, courtesy mostly of family members who have taken these pictures and sent them to us. I have been a terrible picture taker lately...but what's new? 

The first weekend in May the whole Young family went to Denver to be with Chris and Nicole and their adorable family for their new baby Evelyn's blessing. She is a sweetheart and hardly ever even made a peep, except in this picture. Thomas made up for his sister crying with that pose. 

The cutest family. 

The next weekend my brother got married in Logan! Not terribly good quality pictures here but it's what we've got for now. It was a beautiful day and they will have some amazing pictures for themselves later on. 

The happy couple.

Everyone always felt bad that Spencer didn't have any brothers but I never did, look at all of his amazing sisters! Right? He will be such a good husband after putting up with us for all of these years.

This same weekend, my sister Lyndsay had her mission farewell on Mother's Day. She did an amazing job and it was fun to be together on Mother's day. Also, this picture is crazy to me because my youngest sister Kamie looks so old! When did she stop being an awkward pre-teen?

A few days later was Lyla's first birthday! She was super cute opening presents.

She LOVED her new clutch the most.

Although her cake was beautiful, and she is usually a great eater, she hated cake. She will come around I am sure. 

Lyndsay got set apart that night after the birthday party and went to the MTC the next day!  I love this picture because it is classic Lyla. She is always scowling. She and Lyndsay really were good friends, I promise.

And she is off! She has been in the MTC for almost two weeks and she is doing really well. She is struggling with the Spanish a little bit but it's not been much time so I am sure she'll get it soon.

Today is memorial day and we are headed off for a hike and a Young family BBQ later. Next weekend we are rounding off the family time with baby Emery's blessing (Jessica and Adam's new baby girl). It's been a really fun month but I think we are ready for some relaxing weekends with nothing going on and nowhere to be. Maybe in June!

Baby Boy

Our baby boy is growing so fast! I am 22 weeks (about five and a half months) along right now and he is supposedly around 11 inches and one pound. 

We found out some hard news a couple of weeks ago when I had an ultrasound at our doctor's office. As far as they could see, everything was developing normally, except one thing. Our baby has a cleft lip and possibly a cleft palate as well. It was hard news to hear and think about for a couple of days while we waited for our appointment at a high risk maternal-fetal medicine clinic to find out more. The doctor and geneticist that we met with there were wonderful and said that as far as they could see, this is an isolated birth defect in our baby. There still could be other complications but until he is born there is really no way to tell the severity. We had a very thorough ultrasound at the clinic and we got some really good pictures. 

This is a left-side profile

This shot is of the right side of his body, you can see his head and ear and his hand is up by his face. 

This picture of his face shows the cleft lip the best. As far as we can tell, it is a unilateral cleft on his left side.

This face shot, where he is turned away a bit more, shows the other side of his face that appears to be normal so the cleft is just on one side. 

It has been so great the past couple of weeks to just mentally prepare and learn as much as we could. Stephen and I both feel a lot of peace about the whole situation and know that with so many things that can go wrong with a developing baby, we are lucky that this isn't more severe. He will need to get a couple of surgeries in his first year and maybe beyond that as well. They have a clinic at Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake that is devoted just to working with cleft lips and palates, where we will take him to be evaluated within a week after he is born.

If you are interested in finding out more, we have really loved the websites for the Cleft Palate Foundation and the Craniofacial Clinic at Primary Children's.

We have appreciated all of the support from friends and family and are so excited for our baby boy to come!

Spring Break 2013

Last week Stephen and I were out of school for Spring Break so we made the most of it. We started off the week at Disneyland! It's my favorite place in the world. (warning, lots of pictures that we took of ourselves, which is great for me because I loved that it was just the two of us all week long)

We rode our favorite rides...lots of times

Stephen had some special needs but he did manage to beat me on the Toy Story ride, one time out of three that is. 

Cars land is adorable and wonderful.

We ate my favorite Disneyland food together.

Stephen ate his favorite Disneyland food...alone.

We got there early both days to beat the crowds and this was us on the Small World ride, just the two of us in our own boat and no one in front or behind us! We weren't this fortunate with short lines all day but the mornings were great. 

After Disneyland, We drove up the coast on the Pacific Coast Highway from Los Angeles to San Francisco. It was one of the most beautiful drives we have ever taken! I don't know why this isn't WAY more popular, it was amazing. Big Sur was breathtaking and although you can't really capture it fully in pictures, we took lots. 

 

Our last day in California we did some quick sight seeing in the bay area before heading back home. 

It was such a fun trip and so nice to have some time off and spend the whole week just with each other!

100th Post! Back in the saddle again...

I have been away from this blog for so long that I have debated lately whether I should attempt a gigantic update of our lives since October, or if I should just delete it and be done blogging. I thought it seemed like a shame to stop now, right when I am about to have something to post about that people might be interested in! Stephen and I are expecting a baby in August and I will blame my lack of motivation to do much of anything on the first trimester of my pregnancy. I am going to try to post more regularly again, so here is the ridiculously large recap of the past few months.

Stephen is half way through his MBA program and has traveled to Durham, North Carolina, Shanghai, China, and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. He has been posting pictures on face book but I requested picture from him from China and Dubai to put on the blog. Here is what I got:

The Shangahi skyline

Part of the Dubai skyline, this is the view from Stephen's room

This picture is really poor quality but Stephen was so excited that he went indoor skiing in the Arabian Desert.

The holidays are the other excuse I am using for being behind on my blog, so busy! For Thanksgiving, we headed to Las Vegas to be with my mom's extended family. We often don't go downtown at all when we go to Vegas because we are just there to see family but Stephen has a hard time feeling right about that so we went out one night. 

The Christmas season was so fun. Stephen and Bradley surprised Robyn and I with a cute little date ride on the Polar Express in Heber Valley. 

We spent some time with my family

And Christmas day with Stephen's family

We opened presents at our house, Stephen got me a beautiful bracelet and I made him a boy quilt.

After Christmas Stephen and I went on a trip together, just the two of us. It was heaven. We went to St. Kitts in the Eastern Caribbean. 

We hiked the volcano

And we did some sightseeing

But mostly we just relaxed on the beach, took naps, and read books for pleasure (no school books were allowed)

It's been an eventful few months and the next few will be the same. I turned 25 on March first and had a great birthday. Stephen's birthday is in just a few weeks. Stephen's next school trip is to India in a few weeks. The baby is due in August.

There is the big overview of our life right now and hopefully I can blog more regularly now that I am caught up!