Germany

We took a trip with my family to visit different parts of Germany. I was especially excited because Josh had never been to Europe before. We were able to see some of the areas that Isabelle served in and visit the city that my Grandpa grew up. My family has a lot of history in Germany. My Grandpa was born there, my dad served there and so did Isabelle. It was neat to take the whole crew back!

First we went to Amsterdam which I know is not in Germany. It was a pit stop we wanted to make.

 These two are a real treat

 My dads face in this is priceless. He loves to photo bomb. 

Next was Hamburg, Kassel, Bremen, Cologne and Berlin.......

Lets talk about these pics below for a second. Meet Jensen. He made the whole trip. This kid is the funniest person I have ever known. There is never a dull moment. 

 I am so envious of everyone who lived on this lake. 

 My poor dad. He put a lot of work into this trip. We named our GPS Sonia and she led us astray quite a few times. 

This picture below is my favorite. This is the apartment complex in Kassel where my Grandpa grew up. He lived during World War II and lives to tell the tale. His story is amazing. 10 feet away from this picture was the bomb shelter everyone in the town would hide in when the sirens went off.

 Love this boy

 My grandparents love Josh. My grandpa loved sharing stories with him and made Josh carry his bags wherever they went. Josh lost both sets of grandparents a long time ago so he loved having them around.

 This home to the right is where my grandpas mother grew up. 

 This was the backyard

 This cathedral below is considered the largest there is. It is in Cologne. I couldn't believe all the intricate details. 

 We found the locks of love bridge. We decided to join the party with a mini size lock. 

 This was a castle we drove to see. It was in the middle of nowhere and was breathtaking.

 Below is Charlie checkpoint in Berlin. I loved learning about the history during the war and having my grandpa there to bring stories to life.

 Berlin wall

 This is where Hitler gave most of his speeches. Kind of eerie to think about. 

Overall we had a great 2 week trip! We saw alot and had the opportunity to attend church with Isabelles old ward and slept at a members house one of the nights. We ate a gelato just about every day and had lots of pasta and bratwurst. Josh told me we will not ever be going back to Europe but that is because he couldn't have unlimited amounts of soda. Fair enough! He will forget what he said ha. I do agree that 5 sips of a soda that costs roughly 5 dollars is a total rip off. I definitely missed having free water and cereal for breakfast. 

It's a GIRL!

Josh and I are thrilled and shocked to announce we are having a girl. We decided to go to fetal fotos when I was 14 1/2 weeks to find out what we were having. Josh and I were both pretty positive it was going to be a boy. Heck we had already named him ha. I think Josh was getting ahead of himself. He was born into a family of 5 sisters so the idea of getting a son to carry on his name was what he was hoping for. Well we were WRONG and still as excited as ever. Every time we get an ultrasound done it melts my heart to see a human inside of me kicking around.

We feel so lucky to bring this little angel into our life. Josh is going to be such a sucker and that little girl is going to be spoiled rotten. I can't wait to see him with our daughter.

The Saturday of Easter weekend Josh's family had an easter egg hunt and we decided to hide an egg for his parents to reveal the gender.

I love his parents and family so much. My favorite thing about his mom and dad is they have accepted me as on of their daughters. I am the only daughter in law and they make me feel like I have always been apart of the family. So fun to see how excited they are even though they already have a ton of grandchildren. 

I made my family wait until Sunday to announce the news. My mom was dying. She even texted me Saturday and said she had her cutest outfit on and was ready for me to come tell her. I told her she had to wait until Sunday. I'm pretty sure she wanted to kill me. Sunday we had a dinner at my Grandparents house and announced it there.

My family was convinced it was a boy as well because of how sure Josh and I had been. They even pointed out before I announced it that I was wearing a blue dress because I was having a boy. Boy did I trick them.

Check out these pics. Can you believe I am that person? I never liked dogs nor did I think I would be the one to dress them up. Well shoot....

 Rufus has no idea that he is going to be taking a back seat. He will be a great big brother. 

Hospital visits

This year has already been filled with a lot of highs and a lot of lows. This year Josh and I found out we were pregnant! An obvious high moment. This was the best news we had heard. I took the pregnancy test on my own and then wrote on a small poster, "Mama's pregnant" and placed it next to Rufus in his cage. Josh adores Rufus so he seemed to think it was a fun idea. We both took it all on and were so grateful we were going to be parents. As thrilled as I was I didn't allow myself to get too excited. I was worried with how many stories I had heard of people miscarrying so I tried to mentally prepare myself just in case. I almost pretended as if I wasn't pregnant. The weeks leading up to when you are technically in the "safe" zone seemed to drag on forever. I didn't feel pregnant which was a plus so I kept going on with my daily life.

Everything was going fine until March 8th. We were getting ready to go to dinner with friends and I ran upstairs and curled up in a ball. My stomach suddenly started shooting sharp pains. It was the worst pain I have ever experienced. We had no idea what was wrong. The pain persisted so we ran to the emergency room. They gave me a lot of meds and nothing seemed to help the pain. The doctor did an ultrasound, blood work, and urine samples and couldn't find anything wrong. What they did find was a healthy baby which was so exciting to see for the first time. They did not want to do an x-ray because I was pregnant so they just told me they thought I was constipated. I couldn't help but roll my eyes. This pain was NOT constipation. Anyways, we went home and treated it as if it were just that.

Throughout the weekend and week the pain came and went. I was supposed to fly out to Philadelphia for work on Tuesday but had an overwhelming feeling that I should not go. Tuesday I actually hadn't felt too bad so I debated back and forth in my head whether I should go. Luckily I listened to my gut instinct and cancelled my flight that day. The next day I went down for bed and the sharp pains came on but this time stronger than ever. Josh was playing basketball so I continued to call him until he answered. I knew it was serious and I felt like I was going to die. I have always had a high tolerance of pain. This time I wanted Josh to load his gun ha It took everything I had just to stand up. We rushed to the ER. Once again they put me on a ton of medication that didn't even touch the pain. Nothing is more frustrating. We were there for 6 hours with no answers. Luckily a new doctor came on shift and felt my stomach. He called in 2 surgeons and they seemed to know what could be wrong. They had no choice but to rush me in to get an x-ray and immediately found the problem. Next thing I knew I was going in for surgery.

The Lord works in amazing ways. The new doctor came in when I was feeling desperate and took matters into his own hands. I was also very grateful the surgeons took the time to come look at me. They told me they had a surgery that was cancelled that morning and when they realized I needed surgery they called off the other surgery they had scheduled at that time to do me instead. They told a large portion of my small intestines had died. If they didn't remove it immediately it would become fatal.

Josh made a call to mine and his parents to inform them that I was going in for surgery and also announced we were pregnant. ha surprise. That was defiantly not the way I imagined telling my loved ones we were pregnant. Josh felt he was left with no choice and we needed prayers for both. I guess while I was under the surgeons informed Josh that the chance of us losing the baby was high during and immediately after surgery. Its safe to say we experienced a miracle. The baby made it and I also found out that even though they removed 6 1/2 feet of my small intestines I was born with extra then most people. This meant I would still be able to receive the nutrition I needed throughout my life no problem. We stayed in the hospital from Wednesday night to Monday morning. I had no idea how long this surgery took to recover. I was told to take at least 2 weeks off work and that it would be another month until I felt really good. Josh and I would walk around the hospital to help me recover quicker. He didn't ever leave my side and I feel so lucky to have someone like him. It was nice to come home but hard because I had no energy. It was hard to move and its been physically/emotionally really frustrating. Its hard to feel helpless. Im just grateful for family and friends who brought meals and were always reaching out. It is very humbling. Now its now time to focus on this baby we have coming in October!