Highlight of My Summer

I follow a blog that asked it's followers to post about the highlight of their summer. It got me thinking about this summer and what I'll remember. This summer probably wouldn't look too exciting to an outsider. This is the first summer since I've met Tyson that we haven't traveled or gone to concerts or on road trips, we haven't shopped til' we dropped, or done anything very extravagant. Somehow though, this has been one of the best summers of my life. This summer I was a mommy. Our sweet little Chloe is 5 months old. I waited, what felt to me like, a long time to finally get to have a sweet baby. I have loved every minute being home with her. We've kept it local this summer with trips to the pool, play dates, 4th of July fireworks, strolls through the park, we fed the ducks, went to the movies, attended Clovis Farmer's Market on Friday nights, and just had a nice lazy family summer. It's hard to pick a highlight but I think I just loved being out on strolls with Tyson and Chloe. It didn't matter where we were. It was the company that was the highlight this summer.  ;)

Am I really FINALLY Full-Term?!

Tyson and I are SO anxious and SO excited! We can hardly wait to bring Chloe home!
I've got one last finishing touch(the curtains) to put up in the baby's room and then it's DONE! I'm excited to blog that! I've done a little bit of decorating around our new place as well and will post a couple pictures soon. :)
I'm SO thankful to have 2 preschool subs taking over for me for 6 weeks. My friend Nicole Jensen will be covering Wednesdays and Fridays and my friend Mercy Shekklanian will be doing Tuesdays and Thursdays!
Now that I'm 37 weeks I'm a bit nervous but mostly just happy that the end is here!!

WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!

It really is The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!!!!
Tyson and I are thrilled! We'll be moving in a couple days after Christmas! What a great way to spend this holiday.... I was really hoping and praying that we find the right house, at the right place, within our budget before the end of the year and it's actually happening! We really needed this and we just feel SO blessed! I know that Heavenly Father and my little angel have been watching out for me and wanting me to be filled with joy this Christmas! I'm feeling so grateful!
It's amazing to me how much we've been blessed. We've been patiently saving and waiting for the right time to buy and it seems as if it's all paid off!
We'll be saying goodbye to our cute little 2 bedroom apartment. I have honestly really loved living here. We have out grown it at this point but we really made it into a cute little home the past couple years. I'm thinking our new place might look a bit empty for a while until we can upgrade a few things. For example, our current kitchen table, while we love it, is a little bar height 4-seater. We're thinking we'll just stick our bar stools up to the bar in our new kitchen and eventually invest in a new large kitchen table. I'm excited to scout out furniture I love now that I have a place to furnish!
Harland Ranch was having a CLOSEOUT special going on for the end of the year. We got our upgrades, stainless steel appliances and Washer/Dryer for free! Plus, they are covering all closing costs! They also gave us a 3.75 fixed interest rate for 30 years. This home is just right for us. 3 bedrooms, 2 bathroom, 2 car garage, and 1, 450 sq.ft. My favorite part is the KITCHEN! And I LOVE the master bathroom and closet!! Our little nursery will be absolutely adorable and we are already planning getting the garage outfitted to be a play/project area for my little class. We plan to put down carpet, heating, air conditioning, and lighting. It will be just perfect! I only plan to do one class next year with 6 students 3 or 4 days per week and just 3 hours per day. I found out today that one of my students for next year is building a house across the street from me! I think almost all of my students next year live really close by. We checked out the Club House, the trails, the Olympic size pool, the parks, and all of the amenities today and we think it will be a really fun year for us and our new baby in 2011! They even do a movie night in the amphitheater during the warmer months and they have a Saturday morning Farmer's Market! How cute is that! We are just beaming about how the Lord's hand in our life has led us to this point and blessed us so much!

House Hunting

We're still house hunting! It's pretty exciting! I'm really hoping we find something soon. I'd love to be moved into a new house before we have our new baby. It would be SO fun to just start fresh and get the new nursery ready and design my little preschool. :D! We're checking out Harland Ranch tomorrow.

Other news:
My brother Mark comes home from his mission on Tuesday!!! We are thrilled! I can't wait to see him! He's a doll!!! He's been serving in Guadalajara, Mexico. What a wonderful Christmas present!! Only one Hales will be missing this Christmas, my youngest brother John, he recently left on his mission to Canada.

Here's a super quick pregnancy update:

I've been diagnosed with Thrombophilia, a blood clotting disorder and another blood disorder that prevents me from absorbing folic acid and other vitamins. Not the best news in the world to hear but still glad that between my midwife, OBGYN, perinatal specialist, and regular practitioner I've been tested for everything under the sun and that they found this. So I was prescribed blood thinners and a couple of prescription strength folic acid vitamins and other vitamins along with my regular prenatal vitamins.
Also, my midwife and perinatal specialist both feel that this blood disorder had nothing to do with Tatum's death. They still feel that it was the knot and not a blood clot or a vitamin deficiency. Which was good news for me. I never want to have to hear that there was something I could have done to prevent losing her. It was an accident, it was sudden, and there's nothing that could have changed that. She was a big, healthy, beautiful baby and just happened to have an umbilical cord knot and just happened to pull it tight the day before I delivered.

I can't believe that it's been a year, Christmas Eve marks the day that I delivered her. I tried so hard to prepare for Christmas this year....anticipating a melt down....it's hard because I correlate all things Christmas with the traumatic experience of finding out she was gone and then being induced and prepped for delivery and then delivering our sweet baby stillborn. Holding her. Saying goodbye to her. Being wheeled out of the hospital without a baby. And then Christmas day. And then the day after Christmas we started preparation for burial, the graveside, picking out a coffin, picking out flowers, coming up with a program, letting people know, etc, etc, etc. Christmas. It just all reminds me of all of the preparation that went into preparing for her and preparing to bring her home. All the shopping, the nursery, the Christmas tree, the lights, and it doesn't help that I'm pregnant again and again and this year feels a lot like last year only now I have more anxiety. Then there was New Year's and then FINALLY the graveside on January 3. Tyson and I learned the hard way that if you have a loved one pass during the holidays all of your burial plans end-up postponed. No one has funerals around Christmas, therefore they all wait until after Christmas and the county offices are closed during the holidays and it became an ordeal trying to get a death certificate as well. Having the burial behind us was such a relief! We needed that day to come so desperately to allow us to begin to move on. This is turning into a really sad post.

On lighter note, I just want to say that I'm really excited about our new baby coming in March. I just really need to get over this first holiday hump without Tatum, while trying to remember her and how she has impacted our lives.
Tyson and I are house hunting and actually put an offer on a house last week and we're waiting to hear back from the bank. I can't even begin to imagine what it would be like to be moving into our very own house!!! We're hoping for the best but we're prepared to keep looking if someone else had a better offer than us.
It really is a happy and exciting time for us and I know that with this holiday season will come much joy and peace!

Wishing all of you peace, hope, joy, and faith in Christ! Merry Christmas! xoxoxo

Ultrasound!

We met with our perinatal specialist again today.
We had a special Ultrasound that looked at EVERYTHING! Our little baby girl is doing really well! Everything is normal and healthy! She is cute as a button in her 2D pictures! We can't wait to met her and see how much she looks like Tatum.
I'm 20 weeks and she weighs 11 ounces. We're just SO happy!

Here are our name ideas:

Emmerson Ivy
Ivy Grace
Chloe Emmerson
Tayley Jade

Which is your favorite? Tyson and I are having a hard time with names.

Elder Hales x 2

I just posted about Mark and realized I couldn't post about Mark without recognizing my youngest brother Elder John Taylor Hales! John is also serving a mission! John just left for his mission a few months back. He's serving in the Toronto West, Canada mission! He's LOVING it so far! John is one of the most enthusiastic kids I know when it comes to doing what's right. All of his letters are really upbeat and filled with stories! Mark and John's missions overlapped so unfortunately for the boys they haven't seen each other in quite some time and won't be seeing each other for another couple years. They're just about 18 months apart in age. It's been a really neat experience for us having both my younger brothers out at once! Here are a few pictures of Johnboy.

Before John even left on his mission he baptized our friends, Mercy and Michelle. He also baptized another friend named Chloe.

Off he went to the MTC

His Address

With Bishop and Sister Haar at his Farewell Party!

Saying goodbyes

Mercy and Michelle's baptism back in February!