A California Christmas

This was our first Christmas not going to Missouri over break. It was very strange for us, but it was also a big blessing that the doctor allowed us to travel to California. Jarred's sister and bro-in-law graciously invited us to join them over the holiday so we made the journey to southern California!

We left on Saturday morning and made it to Cali late afternoon. We did so much during our trip, I might get some of the details confused, but this is the gist of our trip :-) Pretty sure the first afternoon/evening we just hung out. We played Scrabble, and thanks to living with the Scrabble-master and playing Words with Friends against him, I barely squeaked out a win.

Sunday was excellent! We went to church and I really loved the service!! The worship was wonderful and the message of the Christmas story was presented so simply but was so good. It really reminded me of our church in VA, which made me miss everyone there, but it was so good and refreshing to be a part of the service that day. After church we went to Orange Co to visit some more family. We went to lunch with our Aunt Rob and that woman is such a blessing!! Every time I see her, she shares a part of her or her families testimony and it's just beautiful!!! Her love for the Lord is so evident and so inspiring - such a blessing!!! I think we just hung out Sunday evening - maybe that's the day we watched some of the movie "Elf"??

Let's see...Monday was Christmas Eve. We were lazy getting ready and then headed to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Normally I'm not much of a museum-type person, but the library was very nice and a great experience. Plus, they had two exhibits going that are not always there. The first exhibit was one of Christmas trees representing every decade of American history...it was a LOT of trees! ha! But they were soo well done and so beautiful!! The second exhibit was the Disney archives which was really fun to see the history of Disney from the beginnings to the present. I also learned that Disney really got started in Kansas City...pretty cool! On Monday we also exchanged gifts because the bro-in-law had to work on Christmas. Jarred got me an awesome gift!!! He is SO good! He had my VT diploma framed!!! Techs diploma's are like super huge and you have to have them custom framed - and I would have never spent the money myself so it was the PERFECT gift!!!!! Oh, and we went to Friday's for dinner before the Christmas Eve service at church!

On Christmas we were just lazy. Then, as part of the Caple family tradition, we saw a movie in the evening. We saw, "This is 40"which, I unfortunately do not recommend. It was not that funny and there was a lot of language and it was a really sad picture of what the typical American marriage looks like these days. But, thanks to Bethany and Drew's generosity, we didn't have to pay for the movie because they gave us two free tickets!!
Oh - and I forgot Jarred's favorite part...we went to the beach on Christmas!!!! I saw dolphins for the first time! It was very cool :-) I just love going for walks on the beach with my baby!! He loves the ocean so much and it just makes me so happy when he is happy!!

Then, on Wednesday, we did some shopping and more hanging out. We also took their dog to the dog park that evening which was beautiful! I would absolutely take my dog there!! The park is on top of a mountain overlooking the whole valley and the sun was setting - it was just amazing! And we topped the evening off with some toasted raviolis :-)

Oh - and we got some very exciting news!! One of my bffs from home, Trish, and my sis-in-law Sarah both got engaged!!!!! We're so excited for you both!!!

Overall, we ate way too many sweets (oreo truffles, peanut butter cookies with hershey kisses in them...way too many!), we were spoiled by Bethany and Drew providing so many meals and a place to stay, and we were able to celebrate the birth of Jesus with family. We are blessed!!

Jarred's rents come for a visit :-)

Just two short days after my parents left, Jarred's parents came for a visit! They got in on Thursday, but I had decided to stay home from work. Some of my preceptors insisted I go to the labor and delivery evaluation room as I had another really bad migraine during work. Unfortunately, I was there for five hours on Wednesday evening and the drugs they gave me made me really sick feeling. So, on top of feeling kinda yucky from the migraine, I also didn't get much sleep from feeling so nauseous from the meds...so I stayed home!

When Jarred's parents got in that afternoon, we were pretty chill. We actually received a giant package during the day, which ended up being a glider and ottoman from Jarred's parents. So, since we had this giant box in our living room, his parents decided we should just open our Christmas presents that evening as well!! So, we celebrated Christmas and went to Pei Wei for dinner.

On Friday, I went back to work - thankfully feeling significantly better!! Praise the Lord for rest and relaxation, and a boss who allows you to take time off!! Also, big thanks to my fellow interns for covering my patient load while I was gone!! But while I was at work, Jarred took his parents to our local mall, Costco and In and Out because it was one of like ten rainy days for the year. After they picked me up from work we went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner - Jarred's dad is a big fan of Mexican food :-) And we had gelato for dessert!!

On Saturday, it was unfortunately cold and rainy (again...). But we decided to brave the weather and head to The Desert Museum. It's a really cool outdoor, natural museum. I think we spent like 4 hours there!! And we kinda rushed it toward the end because we were getting so cold. But we got to see lots of animals and plants and all kinds of local deserty things! ha! Saturday evening, we played Mexican train.

Sunday we went to church and the message was quite powerful. The pastor spoke about how Christians have such hope in the promise of everlasting life for those who believe in the Lord. For some reason, I still kinda struggle with fear of death. I absolutely believe that those who believe Jesus Christ died for our sins will absolutely have life everlasting. But for some reason, it's like I fear/believe I'm the exception to the rule and I worry about my salvation. That's something I've been continuing to pray for - confidence in my faith in Him and trusting in His salvation.

After church, we ate at another Mexican restaurant for lunch :-) And then that day we went on another quick hike around Sabino canyon and played some more Mexican train.

Sadly, they had to leave on Monday. While I was at work, Jarred took them up to the Phoenix area and they did all kinds of stuff. Jarred's mom used to live in the area so they drove through her old neighborhood, they did some shopping and I'm sure they did some eating as well!!!

We, as well as Kinsley, were so blessed to have them visit. Both of our parents just continually shower us with blessings in every way!! They provide us with gifts, they share their wisdom, they share their love...we are so blessed and we welcome their company anytime!!!

Again, I have pictures, but just not on this computer so I'll post those later :-)

The rents come for a visit!!

A few weeks ago when my mommy and daddy came for a visit, they came in on a Friday evening. We had the great pleasure of also having dinner with a friend from VA who was driving from CA to VA - so that was a great surprise and wonderful visit! After dinner and dessert with our friend, mom and dad arrived!! Pretty much as soon as we got home, we opened presents from our baby shower!

The Sunday before they came, mom was the guest of honor at my baby shower that was planned for me by a wonderful friend back home. But, the cool thing is, after my mom opened all the presents, all the presents were re-wrapped and sent my way so that I could open them! I was not expecting that, but it was such a blessing to open all our gifts!!

So after our gifts were opened, we briefly talked about our plans for the weekend and then headed to bed. The next morning, we took maternity pics. Mom had bought the cheetah dress for me as a Christmas gift so that I could wear them for pictures. So we just took a few quick pics at the really snazzy resort right across the street from our apartment. But, Kinsely wasn't too thrilled about pictures and I was really uncomfortable most of the day. So we cut the photo shoot short and headed to my grandparents for the weekend.

At grandma and grandpas, we had our family Christmas on Saturday evening. And Sunday, at church, was the Christmas Cantata which was a great celebration! I just love me some Christmas music!! Unfortunately, we had to head back to home Sunday evening as I had to work.

On Monday, mom and dad came to visit me at work for lunch. While I was working, Jarred took mom and dad to Sabino canyon for a quick hike. They saw some natural wildlife :-) For dinner, we took them to a local place and had some wonderful food and desserts!! Yummo!! Unfortunately, Monday evening is when my strange migraine things started to happen and they happened again on Tuesday right before mom and dad had to leave. So, they came to the hospital to have lunch with me and I ended up going to the airport with them to say goodbye and then went home to take a nap!

We had such a wonderful weekend with my family!! I wish so badly that we could be closer to our family (all of our family!!!) The older I get, the more sentimental I become and the more I want to be close to home to "be there" for my family. I just love them SOOOO much and I was SOOO incredibly thankful for their weekend visit!!!

Oh - and I have some pics to add to this post, but they are on another computer. So, I'll add those to another post :-)

Maternity pics!!

Welp, it's been a while since my last update!! We've been busy!! We've had lots of family/friends visiting us. First, our friend from VA stopped by for an evening on his way from California back to VA. Then, my family came for a few days and then two days after they left, Jarred's parents came. They just left today... And in between visitors, I suddenly had these awesome migraine things happening. I call them hormonally-exacerbated, light-induced migraines :-) Either way, prayers would be appreciated as I have to see an ophthalmologist tomorrow to make sure it's not a crazy random thing that can happen in pregnancy! Anywhos, we absolutely LOVED having them here and we miss them SO much!! I'll write two other posts about what we did while they were here.

This post is going to be solely dedicated to maternity pics :-) We didn't have much time to take too many pics at different locations with different outfits and such, but that's fine with me. I'd rather spend more quality time with my fam than take more pictures any day! So here are just a few of our favorites. We took these right across the street from our apartment, at that giant, fancy resort.

Oh, except this one :-) We took it in front of our tree!

Just a silly one - I said I didn't want any pictures kissing my belly

Just love the beautiful backdrop of this one!

Love my precious husband!!

Snuggle my belly, snuggly Miss Kinsley

Sunday Workday, Sunday Showerday

This weekend it was my turn to work on Sunday... So, Jarred and I went to church Saturday morning and then we were pretty lazy!!

Today I went to work and work was fine - it actually wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. I had heard horror stories of how busy it would be and such, but really, it was pretty doable! BUT, while I was at work, my mom was back home in Missouri representing me at my first ever BABY SHOWER!!! I am just blown away by the godly, generous women in my home church and my family. I wasn't even there and yet I was still showered with gifts and blessings...unbelievable!!!

So here is what I have gathered from the shower and here are some shenanigans that apparently went on...Oh, I only know these details because these pics were sent to my phone while I was at work :-)

1) There was apparently a lot of pink and a lot of delicious-looking cupcakes

That's my BFF and shower-planners little girlie helping out!

2) Onesies were made...I hear Kinsley now has about 30 homemade onesies of all different sizes!!

I believe this is where the onesie decorating took place!

Rumor has it that these are the ladies that put the whole shindig together!

Some of the final products :-)

3) Extended family and Church family blessed my baby girl!

There's so many of them! Look closely and you will see a video camera - that's my dad making sure I don't miss a thing!

4) Presents were opened!

My other BFF made that present - it's a little wall decoration :-) so cute!

My mama opening up some more gifts!

So yep - it looks like Miss Kinsley will be nicely taken care of!!! I'm still just kinda in shock at how we are being provided for...so blessed and so thankful!

30 weeks say what???

Welp, the realization that we're going to have a child is still slowly setting in. So, to celebrate, here is a recent bump update...30 weeks today!!!

That's me...still trying to rock the non-maternity clothes, but I'm not sure how much longer that will last! ha!
And if you look closely, you will see a bright white earring. That is one of the many perks of working with kids!! One of the Social Workers on my peds floor made some cute little sparkly snowflake earrings and she was giving them to all the nurses and staff and such! It's so sweet :-)

Oh, and just a quick update on the internship... Yesterday was an excellent internship day until one unfortunate moment. So, word to other potential dietetic interns that might read this. Apparently, there are some preceptors who like to demonstrate their power. A particular preceptor of mine said some really not nice things to me and it really just shocked me!! I tried to defend myself at the time, but there was no appeasing this lady! So, this morning I sought some wisdom from another preceptor who prides herself in being fair - and she most certainly is! So, this wise preceptor told me not to waste a single minute on the power preceptor because, basically, this preceptor gets terrible reviews and terrible things like this happen every single year. Pretty sweet... SO, while it was quite unfortunate I was greatly comforted through prayers for wisdom and the words of my wise preceptor. For any potential interns out there, my advise is to stick to your guns, seek wisdom from those preceptors whose opinion you value and work hard to prove those power-tripping preceptors wrong :-) Oh, and pray a lot for God to help you get over the embarrassment of the event and not dwell on it and become bitter :-)
Oh, and just a fun tid-bit for you...I'm on call this week, so if you need me, just page me!!

GUEST POST! Sabino Canyon and Christmas Lights!

Hey it's Jarred the husband again! Just wanted to share another adventure with you. There is a cool place about 5-10 minutes from us called Sabino Canyon, which is part of the Coronado National Forest. It has a bunch of paved and dirt trails and picnic areas in a beautiful mountain canyon. I look forward to using a stroller on those paved ones! Well I took one of the trails that went 4 miles back into the wilderness to a place called Seven Falls. It was a beautiful hike and much less steep than the last one I did, so I enjoyed it quite a bit. I was surprised to see a deer there also!

Water in the Desert!

40+ ft Saguaro

 I also felt festive today and put up some Christmas lights outside! I am quite limited by living in an apartment complex but we have our own outside staircase so I decorated that! What do you think?

Come visit us!!!! My wife is an adorable pregnant lady!!!!!

Giving thanks

This week was Thanksgiving...THANKSGIVING!!! How did that happen?? This year is going by SO fast. This afternoon I was laying out our schedule to Jarred and I said, "Next weekend I have to work, then my parents are here the next week and then your parents are here the next week, and then there are two weeks off work for Christmas, and then Kinsley comes...Oh boy - Kinsley comes soon!" Serious reality check for me, but it's just unreal how fast this year is going by!

But, for Thanksgiving we got to go to my grandparents. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures except for this one that my grandpa posed...

Yum...turkey leg! haha!

But it was such a blessing to spend the day with them! I had to work again on Friday, but thankfully, the day was not nearly as terrible as we (interns) were afraid of! A couple of the preceptors were like really ridiculous this past week with how to handle our patient load since we would be gone on Thursday...so we were basically told to leave all our patients for Friday... But then we were afraid we would have tons of new consults and not be able to see all of them plus our follow-ups. BUT! Praise the Lord, we literally had one consult on our floors the entire day!! That was a huge relief!!!

While I was working, Jarred had the day off but he has been working hard on some more projects for Kinsley's room. She now has a place to put more clothes or diapers or whatever! We got this sweet old dresser off Craigslist for like $30...a new paint job and voila! Oh, but we haven't refinished the handles yet...they will be coming soon :-)

And you can see the cute picture frame on top of the dresser...that is thanks to our Secret Sibling! Jarred's youngest sis made this awesome picture frame decoration for us...it is SO perfect for the room and I was so excited to finish the dresser so that we had a place to display it!

I have just a couple of more decorations for the walls, and I want to make a few more accent pillows for the bed. After that, I think her room will be finished! We'll just need to get EVERYTHING else off our registry so we can actually take care of her :-)

Tis the Season!!!

I absolutely love Christmas time!!! I love Christmas because of His miraculous birth, to see my family, to have a break from school, to snuggle by the fireplace when it's blizzarding outside...many, many reasons I love Christmas!!! And because of my love of Christmas, I love to start decorating my house very early :-) Jarred usually makes me wait, but last week while he was traveling he heard some Christmas music in the airport or somewhere, so I asked if that meant we could put up our tree...he said we could do it this weekend after our guests left. So, probably within 5 minutes of our company leaving, all our boxes of Christmas decs were out. Oh it just makes me happy to look around my house!!! Here are some pics! I should have taken some "before" pics since y'all haven't seen our house...but whatevs :-)

Jarred putting the star on top!

The final product!!

Christmas tree and fireplace!

Close up of the fireplace - thanks to Trish for the beautiful wreath!

An evening shot - with the mountains in the background!

Weekend festivities

This weekend we were so very excited to host our FIRST visitors (besides my grandparents who live here...). Jarred's oldest sister and her new hubby stopped by on their way from California to Missouri. Long story short, they are transferring a car from California to Jarred's family in MO so we got the great pleasure of having some company!!
They got in just in time for dinner last night so we tried a local place called Oreganos. It was pretty delish. My dish was so-so...the description said it was like, "topped off with spice" and yet it had virtually no flavor. But, it was still prepared very well so I can't complain. BUT, Jarred and his bro-in-law got a "stuffed pizza". This thing was RI-DONC! I've never seen anything quite like it. So, here's a pic to help describe it

The thing probably weighed like 10 pounds from all the cheese! Yummo!! But it was a thin layer of crust, 10 pounds of cheese and some pepperoni, and then another thin layer of crust with some sauce and parmesan cheese on top. Oh. My. Needless to say, we are having leftovers for dinner :-)

Then, this morning we went to church. Just want to share a few words on that. First of all, I kinda teared up during worship (which is not unusual for me, as I am often quite emotional when singing praise...) But, this morning I also got emotional because we sang a song that we used to sing at Northstar...man oh man I miss my church family!! But, our message today was really good too! We talked about Hebrews 5, and our pastor kinda covers a lot of info and is semi-random...but he did briefly talk about the fruit that we bear. He brought up one of the most terrifying passages of scripture, in Matthew 7:
²² Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ ²³ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
But the pastor went on to say that many "Christians" will experience this but you can find hope in knowing that you aren't one of those by the fruit that you bear. You will desire to follow Him, to obey Him, to know Him...
So yea, I really enjoyed the message today.

Then after church we took our fam on a quick tour of the city and then, unfortunately, they had to leave. But, at least we got a couple of great group pics before they left!

 

An Anniversary Engagement

Welp, this time four years ago I didn't even know that I was going to be engaged, let alone married, let alone preggers. But here I am, four years later...married to the most wonderful hubby ever and 6 months pregnant! So, to celebrate the many blessings God has given us, we ate blizzards! ha! But for real... we did...
Also, we went shopping. We bought our secret-sibling gift (it's a Caple family thing) and we also had to do a bit of shopping for Miss Kinsley. Clearly we have our priorities straight because Kinsley's room is just about to be the cutest nursery ever...although she may have to spoil in her own filth as we have yet to buy any diapers, wipes, or anything else that might actually help us take care of our sweet child. Well, we have gotten her stroller thanks to my parents, grandparents and Aunt. It was on sale on our registry a couple weeks ago, and it came in last week!

Really poor quality pic, but you can still see the stroller! I had to try it out!

But other than the stroller, we've mostly just been working on the room. Jarred finished painting the crib which is "blaze orange", aka coral. And on Monday, I had a brief evening of nesting so I made a sign to hang over the top of the crib. Check it out!

A close up to show the cuteness...the paper on the right is totally perfect for our theme!

Hard at work!! P.S. check out my shirt...my $4 thrift store Motherhood brand shirt...score!

Jarred worked so hard on the crib and even hung the sign...he's a keeper!!

I'm sorry all my pics are such poor quality, I'm just too lazy to not use my cell phone! But anywhos, what can you do!
Oh, and one last pic...the bump update! I'm 28 weeks today. And, I'm sporting my big splurge of the weekend (by big splurge I mean my $10 buy compared to my other $4 purchases). My grandma took me to a clothing exchange store and I found some awesome maternity tops! And, they are all Motherhood brand which is like, really good!! So, here's my favorite weekend purchase!

Weekend of Lamaze

Jarred and I have been continually forgetting that going to parenting/pregnancy classes might be advantageous. So finally, last week, we sucked it up and just registered for a class. We did a weekend lamaze class because we weren't sure if we wanted to go to a class for two hours, once a week, for six weeks. So instead, we busted it out!! Saturday and Sunday, 9:00-4:00... nailed it!
One of my favorite experiences from the class was being massaged :-) We were taught lots of relaxing poses and massaging techniques and such, so I got to be spoiled for a while! Another one of my favorite experiences from the class was Jarred having to "make the bed" with a 25 pound backpack on (except he had to wear the backpack backwards so it was on his belly...to give him an idea of what I'm feeling!) Here's a few pics!

Sorry the quality is so poor...the room was dark except for the windows I was facing :-/
Anywhos, after he "made the bed" he had to lay down and then roll over without disturbing me. You can see my feet in the second picture, so Jarred had to roll over without falling off the bed or hitting me... If you've ever been preggers, rolling over is like the hardest thing! ha! So I think it was really good for Jarred to experience these things before I actually get so big and start complaining about it! ha!
Oh, and as for Jarred, his favorite part of the class was, obviously, watching the birthing videos...he was SO into it and can't wait to see another baby crown!
And just a quick life update...this week I finished Phase Three!!! Praise the LORD I am done with ICU patients!!!! Also, Jarred was in VA this past week, so super huge thank you to all our friends in VA for taking care of him while he was there!! AND, super huge thank you to my grandparents who came to keep me company while he was gone!!!

A few tips we learned in Lamaze that might be helpful to you at some point in your life:
1) You don't have to go to the hospital until your contractions are lasting 45-60 seconds and are happening every 3-5 minutes - at that point you're likely dilated to four!
2) I learned that I really don't want to have meds (I never really wanted them, but now I don't unless it's just totally unbearable!). But I don't want meds because after an epidural you are like stuck in your bed and can't move around. And moving around really helps progress your labor... We'll see if I'm tough enough :-) Oh, and I don't want pain meds because then they might be more likely to let me eat...I WILL need food if they expect me to labor for 10 years!
3) Most people have to have their water broken for them. But, actually, you can refuse to have them break it unless there is a medical reason for it....breaking your water before it naturally happens doesn't usually progress labor and actually causes labor to be more painful.

Creepy Crawlies

I'm not sure what's been more creepy crawly lately...these cupcakes or the sweet, precious child growing in my belly!

First let's discuss the cupcakes! These are the deliciousness that dietitians make and dietetic interns eat :-) One of our Phase II preceptors made these cupcakes and, if you know me well enough, you know that it's a big deal that I even touched this cupcake, let alone, ate it! Scary thing is, I've seen one of these things in Arizona. Seriously, this centipede came straight from Africa. The one I saw here in AZ was like 6 inches long...disgusting!

But on another note - the cupcake was super delish! And I must say, I wouldn't ever have the patience to pipe all that chocolate and make all those fake little centipedes!!!

But the other creepy crawly in my life is sweet baby girl! She's getting so big and I can tell!! She will stretch out and literally make it feel like a bomb just dropped in my abdomen and a mushroom cloud is bursting through my belly!... And then I realize that's probably her head or butt or something that I'm feeling instead! ha! It's much more strange of a feeling now that I can feel her just wriggle around and actually feel HER!
Oh, Kinsley's auntie Calen made a very special shirt to help me keep track of how far along I am...so here are a couple of bump pics :-)

So, Happy 26 weeks to baby Kinsley and Happy Halloween to everyone else :-)

Bear Down...What???

Prior to moving to AZ, I asked a dear friend in VA (who had lived in Tucson) what the U of A was like and if she had any tips for me or what were some of their traditions. She replied, "They say, 'Bear Down'". Immediately my thought was, "What????" It makes no sense...they're the Wildcats, not the bears. So, after going to our first U of A football game, I thought perhaps "bear down" would not really be a common saying. Welp, it is. It was all over shirts and hats...the megatron even would say, "This is a bear down!" when the other team was attempting a third down conversion. So, if anyone has any insight as to why the Wildcats say "Bear Down" please feel free to let me in on that!

But yea, we went to a football game. It was the same day as Mizzou's homecoming and I must say the weather was quite different. We were thankful for when the sun went behind the stadium because otherwise we were on the verge of sweating! And while the weather was much different than the Mizzou game that day, I must also say I had my first Hokie Pride moment when I thought to myself, "These fans are so lame." First, they booed the other team as they were entering - c'mon, Hokie Respect. Then, everyone sat the whole time (which, being 6 months preggers, I was actually ok with!) And then, the stands were only like 3/4 full! So, no disrespect for U of A fans, NONE at all, but I might just suggest they go to a VT football game for an awesome game-day environment!

We played USC, a very good team, the game was really close (albeit quite long due to all the ridiculous penalties!!), and we actually won! Overall, I'm VERY thankful my hubby planned a special day for us!!

Here are a few picks from our day!

Go band!!!!!!!

Just chillin

We won!! Very good game!!

love this man!!

There was a little concert after the game and I must say - half the baritone section are girls!