~The Daniels~: 2013

So I know this is really old stuff for us but it is something I have been wanting to post about so we don't forget our summer in Kentucky last year! I'm just going to go through the highlights of the summer so we will always have this to look back on.

Ty left the beginning of April and drove to Alabama for the first month. He was asked to drive to Alabama to help with another office who couldn't get their technicians licensed in time. He really didn't enjoy being there and I felt bad for him. I drove out with Kristy and her two boys Kayson and Rixen the first part of May. Ty was finally able to leave Alabama and got to Kentucky just a few days before we arrived. I was 24 weeks pregnant when we drove out and it was a 27 hour drive so of course we had to do lots of stopping along the way. The first night we drove to Melinda and Reed's house in Rock Springs, Wyoming and spent the night there. It was a good stop and is always nice to see family. We headed on our way again the next morning and stopped in Cheyenne for lunch.

On our way to Cheyenne we stopped and walked through this old prison.

We kept going and then the weather started to get bad and it was pouring rain. The radio kept cutting out and the national weather service had announced there was a severe storm warning in the area. We ended up staying in a hotel in a small town in Nebraska that night.

The next day we woke up super early and drove straight to Nauvoo, IL. We detoured a little bit in order to drive through Nauvoo, but since we were so close we really wanted to see the church history sites and the temple there and I'm so glad we did. It is beautiful there and the temple was gorgeous. We ate lunch at a cute little cafe there and then went to the different sites to look around. I wish I would have gotten more pics but here are a few.

Here is the Nauvoo temple

Carthage Jail

The Mississippi river ran along side of Nauvoo and it was really cool to see. It was beautiful and huge!

We got to Nauvoo later in the day and all their sites closed at five so we were only able to stay there for two hours but it was better than nothing. We hit the road again and drove all the way to Lexington that night. We didn't get there until 3:30 in the morning but it was so nice to finally see Ty after not seeing him for a month and I'm glad we were able to make it that night.

Our apartments in Lexington were really nice and it was so much better than being in hotels like the year before. Our apartments had a pool and a barbecue area which we spent a lot of time at both! They also had a really nice fitness center that had an indoor basketball court and racquetball room which we tried to go to every morning. The area that we lived in was really nice as well. The mall was just down the road and we had a grocery store across the street and Walmart was only about a mile away. There were a lot of libraries too and we went there quite a bit and checked out movies to watch and got books for the kids. Lexington was beautiful and very green. It was pretty hot there but not near as humid as Alabama and Georgia so it really wasn't too bad. Here are a bunch of pictures from our summer:

We drove down to Louisville a few different weekends. One weekend we went to Churchill Downs and saw the horse races. We had lots of fun and it was nice to experience new things. We didn't really know what was going on but had fun anyways ha.

The other time we drove down to Louisville we went to the Louisville Sluggers museum and took a tour there. It was very interesting and lots of fun.

Another weekend we drove to Cincinnati and spent the day there and then went to a professional baseball game and watch the Reds play.

We went to a cathedral there during their mass, it was beautiful!

Cool Bridge

We went to a pond and had lunch

We also went to a park and hung out

We walked through a butterfly exhibit

Another weekend we drove to some caves in Kentucky and a national park and had lunch.

And we found a little turtle :)

Kristy and her boys and I went on a boat ride one day down the river.

The Kentucky river was beautiful!

Here is a castle on the hill that we drove by a lot in Lexington

Here was a neat building in downtown Lexington

Sorry for all of the pictures but these are memories I don't want to forget. We had a great summer in Kentucky! We spent lots of time at the pool and got to experience and see lots of cool places and things!

Well it has been about a year and half since I have updated our blog. I got so far behind I just decided to give up on it. It is a lot of work to keep up, but I have realized it will be worth it and it is something I NEED to do. I don't keep a journal and I don't do scrapbooks so this is what I am going to use to record all of our pictures and write down things I want to remember. I think having Tayvrie has made me realize the importance of having a place to record all of our memories and to be able to look back on everything as she gets older. I have set this as a new years goal, to keep up my blog, so we will see how this goes...wish me luck!

Ok so there is a lot of important things I have missed since the last time I have blogged. I am going to try and go back and record some of the most important things that has happened for us (mainly when we had Tayvrie, as that is something I don't want to forget). So even though it has been awhile and most of this will be older stuff, it is better late than never right? Oh and this is going to be very long!

Ok last post I made I believe we were just finishing our first summer being married and doing the summer sales. We came back and lived in Fairview with my parents throughout the rest of the year and until we went back out again last summer. While we lived with my parents Tyler worked at a boys home in Wales and I worked at the bakery. We found out we were pregnant right before Christmas that year and we were very surprised, but also very excited. When I took the pregnancy test I didn't really think anything of it because I had taken a million before that (not that we were trying to get pregnant I was just being paranoid and always thought I was pregnant ha) and they were always negative. My sister Shelby was there when I took it and to my shock it was positive, I yelled at her to come look at it because I didn't know if maybe I was seeing it wrong. She decided to call both my parents and tell them and then my aunt Stacey came and stayed that night and we told her as well. We also let my sister in law Ashlee know because she is the one that gave me the test. Meanwhile Tyler was at work this whole time and my whole family knew before he did. I was contemplating how to tell him and he had to work all night so I had awhile before I was going to see him. I ended up not being able to wait until he got home and so I text him a picture of the pregnancy test and told him he was going to be a daddy. Needless to say he was very excited but also not very happy with me that he was the last one to know (I will do better next time). ha We had a family Christmas party with the Daniels family the next week and decided to announce our pregnancy to them then. We gave his parents a baby picture frame that had a piece of paper in it that told them to replace it in August 2012.

Positive pregnancy test!!

My pregnancy was not the most favorite thing I have had to do. I don't understand how women can like being pregnant. Yeah it was the most amazing feeling to feel her moving in there, but at the same time it kinda hurt when she would kick me in the ribs. My favorite thing was getting the ultrasounds (which we only got two the whole pregnancy, one at 12 weeks and one at 20 weeks). I was pretty sick until about 18 weeks. I wouldn't necessarily throw up all day (even though I would every so often) but I felt nauseous all day long and just felt crappy all the time. Tyler told me I could quite the bakery so I did the first part of March because the mornings were the hardest for me and I was always sick and had no energy. When I was 24 weeks along my sister in law Kristy and her boys and I drove out to Kentucky to do the summer sales with Tyler and Kayleb (I will have to dedicate a whole post to go over our summer in Kentucky later). I was very swollen after we finally made it to Kentucky. I tried to work out everyday in Kentucky and I did pretty good until the last little bit I was there, it started to hurt my belly no matter what I did. We did do lots of swimming though which wasn't uncomfortable for me and was a good way to exercise while pregnant. I found a midwife out there in Kentucky who I went to every two weeks. I really liked her and it was nice to have a doctor out there so I didn't have to worry about anything. One of the hospitals out there offered a lot of free classes to take for being pregnant and for how to take care of our baby. Shay and I went to a few and I was able to drag Tyler to one. I flew home at 36 weeks along with Kason. It was nice to be home and be close to my doctor and family again but I definatley missed Tyler. I again was so swollen when I got home and for the remainder of my pregnancy. I also was so huge and miserable. My first doctor's appointment back he said I was measuring at a 1 1/2. I didn't get checked again until Tyler came back because I didn't want it to put me into labor. Ty drove home and got here late on the 11th. We had a doctor's appointment on the 14th in the morning, which was also our anniversary. He said I was measuring at a 4 and that I would have her in the next 48 hours. He stripped my membranes and we left and did some shopping and lots of walking around and jumping to try and induce labor. (I hate prego pics of myself but I felt like I needed to add these for documenting purposes so don't judge ha)

12 week ultrasound

16 weeks

20 weeks

22 weeks

24 weeks

27 weeks

29 weeks

35 weeks!!

37 weeks

We stayed at my dad's that night and I woke up around 1 with some cramping. I knew that this was it and that I would be going into labor. I tried to ignore it and lay in bed pretending it wasn't happening as I was terrified. I finally was uncomfortable enough that I got out of bed. My mom was sleeping on the couch in the living room. Her and I went walking outside because they weren't too painful yet and I wasn't sure when to head to the hospital. At about 2 a.m. I woke up Tyler and told him we needed to go to the hospital because it was time. We got there at about 2:30 and by then the contractions were bad enough that I couldn't walk through them. We I finally got checked in and ready they checked me and I was at a 6. I was getting really uncomfortable by this time and was throwing up a lot. I was bugged by my nurse, she wasn't very nice and was taking her time with everything and I really wanted my epidural. Finally the anesthesiologist showed up after 4 and I got my epidural. He poked a nerve when he was putting it in and I jumped and it freaked me out. The epidural was amazing, I didn't feel the contractions at all after that. It did make me nauseous though. They checked me after it was in and I was at an 8. The only bad thing about the epidural was that it completely slowed me down and I didn't progress at all after that. I then tried to sleep as much as I could. My doctor came and broke my water. I finally reached a 10 at 9:30 that morning and they told me I would start pushing at 10:30. My doctor wanted to wait an hour after I reached a ten to let my body push her down the natural way. He said it was easier on her and me. My parents and sister was there most of the night and Tyler's parents and sister Kristy came that morning and were there before I had her. I kicked everyone out of our room about an hour before I had her because I was starting to get uncomfortable and wanted to be left alone. It was just Tyler and I in the delivery room (and he watched the whole thing, which he didn't think he was going to do). I could feel the pressure of her moving down and I kept trying to give me more medicine through the epidural but it didn't matter how much I pressed the button I could still feel it all. Well 10:30 came around and my doctor wasn't there. The nurse kept checking me and my blood pressure was going way high and I got toxemia right there at the end. It was like 190 over 40 and she was starting to freak out which was freaking me out. She kept calling the doctor and he said he was locked out of the hospital. I guess their security system went down and it locked all of the doors and he couldn't get in. He finally got up there and threw on a gown and told me I needed to start pushing because we needed to get her out as soon as possible because my blood pressure was so bad. I started to get scared and within two pushes she was out. I did have to wait in between the two because the cord was wrapped around her. The first thing I saw of her was a white butt. She was covered in whatever it is they are covered in and was very white. ha I asked to make sure she was still a girl, and to my relief she was :) She weighed exactly 8 pounds and was 19 inches long. She wasn't breathing very good when Tyler brought her over to me so I didn't get to hold her very long before they took her. I did have to get a few stitches and felt every bit of it. I also felt all of it when she came out too, which was not fun at all. When I think about giving birth again it gives me anxiety. ha I know it is all worth it in the end but I'm not excited to do it all again.

She is finally here!