9 months of marital bliss!!

9 months have passed since we were married. What?! It feels like our wedding day was yesterday, but at the same time it feels like we've been together for eternity. It is wonderful spending every day with your best friend.

We were madly in love this day. But it's nothing compared to how we feel about each other now.  And the love grows and grows :)

I'm looking forward to being that skinny again ;)

So much has happened in these last 9 months, and we wouldn't trade any of it! It's been a huge change, and it has been challenging. But it has been so incredible. It saddens me when I hear people constantly talking about marriage as this insanely difficult thing that they have to sacrifice and settle for. No wonder people don't want to get married anymore! Granted, we're no marriage experts seeing as we haven't even gone a full year yet, but either we just really lucked out with each other, or people are marrying the wrong person. Or they're making marriage harder than it has to be. You see, we've gone through a lot in our journey so far. Some things we've gone through are things that could tear and have torn marriages apart. Before we got married, we made sure that the "D" word would not be a word in our vocabulary. Some people say "it would be so much easier to just throw in the towel and call it quits." But for us we feel that life would be much harder without each other. We'd rather have a partner in this life, who's there to help you and love you through everything. We both have gained an incredible amount of patience, selflessness, gratitude, understanding and love. We talk about everything, every day. We laugh together and cry together. Although there are hard times, the good times heavily outweigh them. We have SO much fun together! We joke and flirt, we cuddle up and watch movies, we read, we play games, we go out, we go on adventures and we keep our love alive... Every day is wonderful. Every day I am grateful that I have this incredible man in my life who makes me feel like I can do anything. We make each other happy. And we are better because of each other and our marriage. I truly can't imagine life without my best friend and I'm so grateful to know that I will never really have to be with out him. He's all mine for eternity :)

The main factor in making our marriage so successful and so enjoyable is the fact that we've made sure our Heavenly Father is a partner in our marriage with us. We love praying as a couple, studying the scriptures and having gospel doctrine discussions, and attending our church meetings together. It makes us so much happier! When the spirit fills your heart and home, it makes it much more difficult for satan to step in and create contention and temptation.

We just really love being married and we can't wait for our anniversary in 3 months!!

That all being said, here's some regular life updates!

Eric has been at his new job for a couple of weeks now and LOVES it! He's doing really well, catching on very fast and everyone is very impressed with him and his work. He is busy and works long hours, but it's okay because he is just so happy there. He is fascinated with the world of pharmacy and medicine, and I'm glad he'll have a good understanding of it all when he goes to pharmacy school. He's also done with school! He took his last final today and handed in his last paper. Now Baby Payne and I will have his undivided attention when he's home from work :)

We've had some illness plague our home. Eric's been sick on and off for a couple of months, but he's pretty much all the way better now :) I got a nasty cold a couple of weeks ago, which took me until just a couple of days ago to fully get over and then it decided to show up again yesterday... So I've been laying down with tissues and cough drops as a humidifier blows in my face. I don't like the idea of delivering a baby with a cold, so I'm doing all I can to kick it :) Eric is taking great care of me, as usual :)

At 36 weeks, I was off of bedrest for good. We had a really good chance of going by 36 weeks, but I was so excited and grateful when we passed it!  Then at 37 weeks, I started to get impatient haha I started to walk around a lot and even dabbled with a few things to naturally induce labor (pineapple, raspberry tea.. that kind of stuff). Then 38 weeks... What!? Never in a MILLION years did I think I would ever make it that far. At my 38 week appointment I was dilated to a 3.5 and 75% effaced! That was this last Friday and now it's Monday. I've had a few labor scares, but nothing legit yet! My induction date is Thursday morning, so no matter what.. Baby Payne will be here THIS WEEK!!!! It's been such a long time coming!!! We're so grateful to have made it this far and can't wait for this amazing child to make her entrance into this world!My mom will be coming on Thursday to help out for a few days and I cannot tell you how excited I am to see her!! I'm a mama's girl for sure.

Here's my cheesy pregnant self at 36 weeks! (I gave up on my number shirt. Sorry. haha) 

37 and a half weeks! Popped and dropped! 

And here's some adorable Christmas Cheer for everyone!! My sweet niece Chloe!! We finally get to meet her in a few weeks and we can't wait!! Look at her face!

That's all for now! We can't wait for our lives to change drastically this week!!! And I will tell all about it! :)

thanksgiving weekend

We've had such a fun week! For Thanksgiving, Eric's sister, her husband and kids came to stay. We had a lot of fun with them playing games, shopping, going to the movies, and just hanging out. Here's some pictures from Thanksgiving weekend! (No baby yet.) 

Cheesy Potatoes. I helped make these and I'm pretty sure it was the best thing I've ever eaten in my life. 

Yummy yams :)

Little Dallin was helping prepare the food :) 

My mother in law has the best plates :)

The dino had to eat too :)

Every year my family watches White Christmas on Thanksgiving. Since we weren't there this year, Eric made sure that we would still be able to watch it :) I was SO happy :) 

My favorite scene in the movie. Everyone NEEDS to watch this film haha

This boy had such a blast helping Eric brush his teeth :)

Playing in the rain :)

Swimming the week of Thanksgiving. Never thought I'd see the day :)

My sister and her husband came down from Utah to Newport beach for a family vacation. Newport is only about 20 minutes from us so we had to get together and hang out! We had so much fun!! It was a beautiful day. We see our friends online going to Newport and Disneyland all the time! Both these places are really close to us, so please know that if you're ever in Southern Orange County, you're so welcome to get together with us! We LOVE visitors!!

It's been a wonderful few days to relax, and hang out with family! I'm 37 weeks tomorrow! Baby Payne will be here in no time :) We can't wait to be parents :)

happy thanksgiving!

First off... no baby yet. Everyone can breathe now.

We've had a pretty darn good week! Over the summer right before we moved, Eric completed a program to become a certified Pharmacy Technician. He did so well and passed his final exam with flying colors! He received a national pharmacy tech license and when we moved to California, he had to apply for a state license as well. All he had to do was send in the application, some personal info, and money. Then they send the license back to him. Simple, right? Well.. California is slow. REALLY slow. Plus there was that whole government shut down thing, which I'm sure didn't help. They said that it would take 45 days to send him his license. We sent in all the stuff as soon as we got here in August and he FINALLY got his license last week! In the mean time, he was still applying for millions of jobs (either pharm tech jobs where he'd say he had a license pending, or just regular Joe jobs) and didn't have any luck getting one. He sent in so many applications and had quite a few interviews, but was just not getting any takers. His parents own a dental tech lab, so to make money he's been working for them a couple of times a week cleaning and running errands. When we found out I had to be on bed rest, we honestly saw this as a blessing. He was able to stay home and take care of me when I couldn't do very much for myself. I was able to stay down and keep this girl healthy. He was also able to focus on school and has seriously rocked this semester. Then, about a week after we found out I was good to get up a little bit more, his license came. And the very first pharmacy he applied for, he got an interview and was hired right on the spot!!!! Now that I can take care of myself, he'll be able to work so we can provide better for our little family! This girl can come anytime with no fear :) He's been so patient and has had SO much faith in knowing that things will work out. He's helped me through many a tear filled night and never lost any confidence. When we got married, we got the advice to wait to have kids and spend time together from numerous people. I thought that was smart advice, and I honestly thought we would have at least 6 months to a year before a pregnancy test turned positive. When I got pregnant right away, I was thinking of all the advice we'd gotten and wondering if it was going to be difficult on our marriage. Honestly, I feel like we've spent more time together these past 9 months than many couples do in a couple of years. We've gone through a lot together already and our relationship has been strengthened so much. I'm grateful for all the time I got with my husband before we enter into the phase of parenting. I never thought I'd be grateful for unemployment haha

We had our 36 week appointment yesterday and it looks like things are beginning to progress a little bit! I've dropped, I'm dilated to a 1.5 and I went from about 5cm to 3cm. The doctor walked into the room yesterday and said "Are you seriously still pregnant?! Is this real? Someone pinch me." haha He told us about a lady he knows who had the same issue as me and is still in the hospital to prevent her from moving any faster. House arrest was much better than hospital arrest haha Anyways, at the end of our appointment, we set up a date for me to be induced! He said just in case we make it there, he wants to keep an eye on my labor the whole time. But he's more expecting us to go before then. The induction date is December 19th at 7am. 20 days is our max! 20 DAYS or less and we'll have a baby!! We are so ready for this girl.

Eric and I decided to practice swaddling and diapering. This monkey was the closest size to a newborn we could find... haha (Baby Payne will be MUCH cuter)

Since it's Thanksgiving today, I thought I'd share a list of things we're grateful for :)

-Heavenly Father
-Our Savior
-Marriage
-Temples
-Baby Payne
-Our big, loving, helpful, gracious family
-Our incredible friends (you know who you are!)
-Warm California weather
-FaceTime
-Social Media (to keep up with our loved ones)
-Our great ward
-The luxury of having really yummy food every day
-All the gifts, and hand me downs we've received for Baby Payne (We seriously don't know what we would have done without it all)
-A nice, comfortable home to live in
-The ocean
-Ultimate Frisbee (Eric)
-Our awesome Doctor
-A great car with the best gas mileage ever
-The Gospel.

This is a very small chunk, but we seriously are SO blessed. Words can't express our gratitude for all the things we have. I love this day and this season.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!!

great news & another birthday weekend!

I'm just going to go ahead and jump into the good news, because it rocks!

We had our 34 week doc appointment last Thursday. Despite me releasing labor hormones, despite lots of contractions and major uncomfortable-ness, my cervix was looking the best it has yet!! How it did this, I don't know. We had our ultra sound and the baby was measuring at 5lbs 1oz (she's getting SO big!!) and my cervix was a little over 5cm! Which is above average! This was super unexpected for us and our doctor. He was actually laughing at how well I'm doing and joking that he's going to have to give me a c-section at 44 weeks haha (he would NEVER let me go that long). I'm too far along now for the medicine to really do anything, so we're off that for good! And at the end of the appointment he said "I'm going to go off on a limb here and treat you like a normal pregnancy. See you in two weeks!" So we don't go back until the week of Thanksgiving! It's nice to have a break, but a little nerve racking since we've both gotten so used to having all of our questions answered once a week. I'm not "officially" off of bed rest, but I've been given much more freedom to do things, and I don't feel nervous about getting up and getting around now! If we make it ALL the way, we have no more than 5 weeks left! Time is going rapidly. I'm nearly 35 weeks and we both are SO excited to meet this special little girl :) She's already been such a blessing for our marriage and personal growth. It will be an honor to raise her. I just can't express my gratitude enough for the wonderful, close care we've gotten from our doctor. Without him, we'd have a baby in the NICU right now. Instead she's growing safe in my tummy where she should :)

At our church, Eric and I teach 4 and 5 year old kids in the primary. Two Sundays ago, they had a primary program where they sang all the songs they learned through out the year. I couldn't be there because of the bed rest (But I can go to church now!!) so Eric sent me a picture of our little class after the program. We love them so much! He had some help from the Missionaries in our ward, which I'm so grateful for. Look how cute they are!!

We also had family staying with us from Utah on and off through out the week while they played it up at the beach and Disneyland. It was SO much fun having some more family over, and I loved getting to know them better :)  Here's Eric with his cousin's little girl. He's kind of amazing at painting nails :) And she's kind of adorable.

Mine and Eric's birthday's are about 2 weeks apart, so this past weekend it was my turn to get spoiled! Eric was really excited when we learned that I had more freedom so he could take me out a little bit more the day of my birthday :) He's extremely romantic, thoughtful and he plans things out well in advance. He also REALLY loves surprises. I'm not ashamed to say, he totally out did me on the birthday thing this year haha. Here's how the day went:

We stayed up late the night before having pillow talk. At midnight, Eric reached to the side of our bed and handed me a single pink rose. I cried. It was so sweet and perfect. Then, we went back to sleep and woke up again at around 6 or 7 ish in the morning. When we woke up, he reached to the side of the bed again and handed me a Happy Birthday card and a little certificate that said I had an appointment to get my makeup done at Sephora! I was really excited about that one :)

How sweet is he?!

The family we had staying with us was leaving that morning. I went downstairs to say goodbye to them, and they were already waiting at the bottom of the stairs. I got a surprise Happy Birthday song from everyone before they left! It was so adorable and made me feel so special! Then I went into the kitchen and this was there!! Being a proud member of the LDS church (where we don't believe in drinking alcohol) and being pregnant (duh), my family improvised to be funny with lots of different flavors of sparkling cider! And Eric got me a beautiful bouquet of flowers :)

After our family left, I got partially ready and we all went out to breakfast. It was SO good! 

After breakfast, we came home and opened presents. Eric got me a refill of my favorite perfume (Refuge from Charlotte Russe. I've been using since I was like 16, and I still love it), new shoes that I've been wanting forever, a sweater, boots, my favorite mascara, and new eye makeup brushes. My in laws got me a tiny Christmas outfit for Baby Payne, a dresser (much needed), and a pajama robe (I've been bugging Eric to get me one... haha I was SO happy). Then we got to FaceTime with my family and we went off to the mall so I could have my makeup done! The girl who did my makeup was super cute and nice and Eric had so much fun watching the transformation. He even got me a couple of things that he liked seeing on me after! Then, he took me to get another present. Ice :) You know the good ice that Sonic and Taco Time and Kneaders have? It's my favorite and I could snack on it all day. So he took me to Sonic and got me a 10 pound bag to have all to myself! I was so happy!! 

Here's the makeup all done!

After that, we came home a relaxed for a little while. Then, Eric's parents took us to a nice Italian restaurant (Italian's my favorite, and they've been wanting to take me to this place for a while). It was SO good! I got a piece of cake with a little candle in it at the end :)

I look huge. But it's the angle, I swear.

When we got home for the night, it was time to pop some bottles and celebrate! I felt pretty cool drinking all that cider :) We had so much fun! Then we got all dressed down in our jammies, snuggled up and watched a movie. It was such a perfect birthday. I really think I had more fun than any other 21 year old. I'm so blessed to have such a great husband and family! Life is awesome for the Payne's.

maternity shoot: 33 weeks

So when we moved to California, I remember thinking "Oh this will be so great! We can do my maternity pictures at the beach!!" But now that's not really an option, although it's so close. I'm allowed to get out of the house for doctors appointments and the occasional drive (Although I've admitted to some cheat days on here.. whoops. I'm usually really good!). But I can get up and do things I need inside the house. So it's more like I'm on house arrest haha I've seen a lot of lifestyle maternity and newborn pictures floating around lately and I've totally fallen in love with them. So I decided that was the style I wanted to go for, instead! We spent an afternoon taking pictures in our room and the baby's nursery using my camera, Eric's newfound photography skills, and a chair as a tripod so he could sneak in some pictures too :) Enjoy!

Here's the handsome man at work!! 

Being pregnant is tough. There's the never ending sickness (more commonly referred to as "morning" sickness), weight gain, stretch marks (I haven't gotten any yet, for which I feel blessed haha), clumsy ness, random pain, and for me, the constant fear of keeping our baby healthy and safe where she should be. But regardless of it being hard, I LOVE being pregnant. I think it is absolutely fascinating that our bodies can transform like this to create a human being. I love feeling her grow and move. I love that I have the ability to create a bond with this little person I've never seen. I feel beyond blessed that I have been given such a gift from my Heavenly Father to create life. There are many people close to me who struggle being able to get pregnant. I wish so badly that they could experience it. It helps me appreciate my pregnancy more, and take it all in.

So far this week, things are continuing to look stable! We have so much hope for our baby to keep growing inside of me. Next week will be our last ultra sound exam, and then we get to have regular weekly exams like a regular pregnancy from there on out! Thank you again for all the concern and prayers. We truly believe it has made all the difference in having such a successful pregnancy!