My pregnancy..

pregnancy calendar from WhatToExpect.com

Halloween

We had a simple Halloween, but it was nice. Look what we did..

Jake had a good idea for what we could do with our two pumpkins..

Isn't my husband the cutest!?

Our pumpkins were famous by the next day at church. We heard about it from several different people. I had fun passing out candy for the first time and we enjoyed going out to dinner with some friends. Happy Halloween!

Our little miracle!

Jake and I are the only ones who know what a miracle we have, so I thought I'd put a sparkle to our news of our pregnancy and tell the full providential story. Here is why I believe this little girl is surely meant to be. Some people attribute things to chance, others clearly recognize when God has performed a work, however great or small it may be. I attribute the procession of occurances we experienced to God.

We had been trying to get pregnant for a few months without success and God told us it just wasn't quite time yet. When He decided it was time though, there was no stopping it!

First, Jake was going to be in Germany for 2 weeks during the small window of opportunity we had to yield a pregnancy in the month of June. We had even planned our own little trip to take advantage of the free airline ticket. But even with my flying out to Germany as planned, we still would have completely missed the small window. Before we made any definate plans, however, his work postponed the trip until August. Jake was grateful because he wasn't planning on staying with the company that long and didn't want to be away for 2 weeks anyway. So that meant no trip to Europe for me, but that he would be home.

Then his work scheduled him for a business trip to Oregon just overlapping that small window.. Oh well, maybe next month, I thought.

Nope, then his company had something urgent come up in Quebec. So they had Jake cancel his trip to Oregon (which was no small deal because he had to cancel an airline ticket, a hotel, and forget about all he had done to get ready) and schedule a trip up to Quebec for the week following.

So first it was out of the question because Jake was going to be in Germany. Then it was out of the question because he was going to be in Oregon! So after changing the plan 3 times, God was able to bring us together during that critical week.

What a miracle! I can't wait to meet her.

Car troubles and wonderful parents

Jake took his car in for inspection on Saturday and when they gave him the report, it said "FAILED." Apparantly there was a rear brake light wiring problem (whatever that means.) When the headlights were on, the rear brake lights and cruise control both stopped working. Super strange. I was sure that this PROBLEM was caused by the people who worked on his brakes a while back; however, they said there was no way it was related to the brakes. (I guess that makes sense when I really think about it.) They said to take it to the dealer because they probably always deal with this problem. Wrong. Jake spoke with the dealership, who said they have NO IDEA what it could be and that it would cost $85 to assess the car. YIKES. So I did the typical Holland thing and went to my dad for his expert wisdom (and consulted the internet, of course.) Well, an hour or so later and after spending $4.00 on some new light bulbs, the car is fixed! AMAZING. My dad is amazing! He can fix anything.

Jake was out of town for the night and it was wonderful to spend the time with my family. My parents are my greatest examples of selfless giving. It's fun to have them checking in about everything and know they truly care and will help me out in any possible way they can. And they do.

Fall mornings

Our internet is down at work so I have some down time to write about the beauty of the morning! Jake’s big annual work convention is this week up in Midway, which is up in the canyons above Park City and Provo. I went up last night for their big opening dinner and everything up there is quite nice. It is 100% fall up there! Beautiful fall leaves, a few snowflakes, and brisk air. This morning I had to scrape the frost from my car windows and wander through the lonely streets on my way back towards Park City. The hills looked exquisite with the frosty mist and the fall leaves. The full moon was out just above the ridgeline as it contemplated setting behind the mountains for another day. The mist looked beautiful as it rose up from the river, pond, and lake I passed along the way. I haven’t seen a morning so beautiful in as long as I can remember.

It was fun to be up there with Jake and see his professional, efficient work manner. A lady he works with asked him yesterday if he liked his job, to which he replied he did. She then asked if he loved his job, to which he easily responded, no. I don’t know if Jake will ever LOVE his job, but I know for sure that he loves to do a job well. I see it all the time.

I’m going back up tonight and will try to take a picture in the morning on my way back into town. We’ll see if a picture can even attempt to do it justice or if I’m lucky enough to start off two days so wonderfully.

Happy Fall!

Birthday and more!

I'm 15 weeks pregnant now, finally starting to show, and we find out next Friday if it's a boy or a girl. We're super excited. Jake bought me two little binkis for my birthday (one says I love daddy!) and his mom bought me the cutest little moose outfit for the baby. I am so anxious to go out and buy EVERYTHING, but haven't yet. You should all be proud of me.

My birthday was great! We went to dinner with my family the night before and then Jake had secret plans for me on the day of (he had so much fun tormenting me as I was dying to know what we were doing.) Since it had been a year since we got engaged, he took me up to the same place up Rose Canyon and we had a nice picnic and cake and presents. He wrote another letter to continue what he had started last year. It was super great!



We are doing well. I'm starting to feel better more and more and throw up less and less.. Nice details there huh? Jake seems to like his new job and we're going to have to stop calling it new here soon. I'm still happy with my job as well and am half way done with my hours to become licenced! Something I'll definately have to finish up even after the baby arrives.

I also got called to work in the young women's as the Laurel advisor about a month ago and am enjoying that. We have great girls and great leaders.

Hope all are well. Good luck with your endeavors.

-Ashley

WOODBURNING

Jake and I went camping with some friends over the weekend up in the Uintas at Moosehorn Lake. It was beautiful and another great time! We remembered the camera, but the battery was dead! So here is a picture of Jake and our tent so you can picture what it looked like set up in our campsite.


I was hoping we'd get to see a moose, but no luck. Kenny and Steven saw a moose up our own canyon back home. We went all the way up to the Uintas and we didn't see one. Oh well! Maybe NEXT summer! It was beautiful and finally felt like real camping. I was super worried about throwing up because I'd have to do it in the outhouse and I truly can't imagine how horrible that would be, but it turned out to be a good day. No sweat! I guess what's really on my mind today is Grandpas. We were sitting around the campfire and I got a faint smell of the wood burning and it brought back these strong memories of my Grandpa Pope. He passed away when I was 8, so I don't have a lot of memories of him. I remember him down in the family room working on his woodburnings. They were so awesome! It was so awesome to watch him do them. I said something at the campfire and sounded like an idiot.. "It smells like woodburning." .. 'Yeah, that's wood we're burning!'.. "Right. But I mean woodburning, like where you make pictures with a hot tool thing. It's art." Apparently, not many people have been exposed to the world of woodburning, which I just learned is called pyrography (Isn't that cool Danny!) So those who were lucky enough to get one of Grandpa's woodburnings, hold onto them because we'll have to explain what they are to our children and I can't even explain it to my husband.. They're beautiful pictures. My Grandpa's looked just as good or better than the ones in the links. The other memory I have of my Grandpa is they would come out when we'd arrive to visit from California and Grandpa would stoop down and give me a big hug.

Jake's Grandpa is on his way out of this life. We left the Uintas early in the afternoon to make a trip up to Logan so Jake could say goodbye in case it was his last chance. It was sad. He's had alzeimers for quite some time now and isn't the same guy they've always known. It really was heartbreaking to see Jake say goodbye. His Grandpa is already gone in so many ways, but to loose someone is always hard. (I'm writing this after the fact, and he is doing better now and may stick around a little longer afterall.) Emotions definately run stronger when you're pregnant.

I'm grateful for wonderful Grandparents. They truly enrich our lives so much and become so much of who we are.

I'm also grateful for great parents who went the extra mile so often so we have so many wonderful family memories and I know how to start a fire and set up a tent. They're going to make incredible grandparents and I can't wait to see it!