goodness. gracious.

I can't even... I mean, really Amy? Almost a year?

I apologize for the lack of updates. I suppose that's what comes along with being dropped into the newness of motherhood.

But guess what? Motherhood? It's pretty freakin' fantastic.

As I'm sure you all know Elizabeth Jaelynn (aka Ellie, aka Bean) was born last April. She is the prettiest, funniest, absolutely most enchanting little person I have ever met in my life. Today she is 10 months old and it's so hard to wrap my head around how quickly time has passed. We are SMITTEN. There aren't any words. So here's a picture since that will melt your heart, too.

Photo by Loni Smith Photography

So, I am back. Brace yourselves. 

Oh, hi there!

Oh, sheesh. 8 months without a single update on our life and now there is so much going on that it almost seems impossible to recap all that has happened. I am so sad with myself that I didn't do more to document this entire pregnancy but as they say, hindsight is 20/20. I can't believe our little girl is due in just 13 short days. Where did this time go? Why do I suddenly feel so rushed and so torn between wanting her in my arms and wanting her to forever be my little cupcake bouncing around in my belly? As we get things ready for her I sometimes just stare at something like her car seat and it hits me right in the stomach that we are going to be PARENTS. ETERNALLY. But we are ready, and so incredibly excited to have our little one here with us!

In non baby news, we have moved! Yep, our seventh move in almost three years of being married. This move is definitely more permanent seeing as how we have sold our souls to the Bank of Utah in exchange for one home that is in need of a little TLC and a whole lot of time. We absolutely loved Colorado and miss it a lot but Zac and I had both been feeling like we needed to be closer to our immediate families and everything has just fallen into place for us. The house we bought is in Clearfield, 3 blocks away from the Martin side and a quick 2.5 hours from the Robinsons, much closer and convenient for our baby to know her grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins! Zac is now working for Keller Williams with his dad selling real estate and is loving it thus far. I'm so glad that he has found something that he loves and can build on while he does his online classes. I'm still at Wells Fargo but have a lovely stretch of baby vacation coming up that can't get here soon enough!

I am horrible at ever taking pictures of our happenings, mostly because we are pretty stinkin' boring but I will add a few from my phone to hopefully give you a little reassurance that we are still here, still just Zac and Amy.

On Halloween we went and did our civic duty & voted! But weed is still legal in Colorado...

On November 6 my little niece Raylee was born and she is my absolute favorite little nugget ever. 

In November we also found out that the bambino is a little lady! Zac was right the whole time. 

Merry Christmas to Zachary, he got his Ruger 10/.22 and no ammo. 

Christmas was a quiet one this year, which we loved. Lucy even enjoyed herself (even though she was in puppy diapers)

Around 30 weeks if I remember right, my toes were starting to disappear!  And I thought my belly was sooo huge then... 

In February Jes went through the Denver temple for her Endowments and Amanda was able to come out to visit! We are due one day apart with little girl cousins

Moving day. Of course. 

The living room as it sat when we bought the house. Yep, lime green walls and blue commercial grade carpet. Why not?

Taking advantage of free manual labor (thanks Owie!)

The walls painted before the new carpet went in, which is now installed and currently covered in baby stuff and Lucy toys so that will be documented at a later date.

I don't do mirror pictures but that morning my belly felt particularly gigantic and needed to be addressed. 37 weeks. 

The handsome and licensed (in Utah) Mr. Martin. 

This was just last night. I can't believe how something as simple as Zac putting together a travel system could make me all emotional and even more in love with that guy. He is amazing. 

The madness that is my house right now. I should probably get on finishing her nursery so things can have a place...

 Welp, I think that's about as much updating as I can stand right now. Hopefully the next post will be introducing our little cupcake! Cross your fingers that she comes quickly and without a single pain ;) ha!

foot, meet mouth.

So it has hit the interwebs. And I feel oh, so silly about my slightly bitter post a couple weeks ago. Please know that I was writing it from a very honest and real place in my heart, I had NO idea about this precious little spirit that we are being blessed with. I guess Heavenly Father was not only showing me a little patience but some humility as well. And with that said, I cannot even tell you the magnitude of our excitement and gratitude! Yes, I cried over that silly little stick that I peed on, we rushed out to get 10 more tests, and I have been puking my guts out ever since. When I originally found out I calculated my due date to be April 6, putting me at about 9 weeks right now but a few days ago we had to go in to the doctors for some pains I was having and they dated the little nugget at around 7 weeks. Lame, but we saw the heartbeat and everything looked perfect! And yes, we realize the social norm is to wait until 12 weeks to let the cat out of the bag but A. we cannot contain this excitement and B. at the doctor's appointment everything looked so great that we were given only a 5% chance of miscarriage (so obviously we are praying like crazy that we are not the exception in this case). So, whew, that's it. We have a baby coming! 

from the bottom of my heart.

You guys, when I posted that last one about babies and all the various details, I NEVER in a million years would have expected to feel so much better, not to mention so much love and support. To every single person that reached out to me in some way, I can't thank you enough. I appreciate the notes, the texts, the comments, every little bit. I can tell you this, I have faith in Heavenly Father's plan for Zac and I, and our future little ones. It is absolutely in His own time.

Because you (& your neighbor, & your dog) have asked

*Heads up, this post is personal. If you don't want the nitty gritty it's probably best you skip past this one.*

Babies. There, I said it. Let's address it. Yes, Zachary and I have been married for two whole years now and yes, we were indeed commanded to multiply and replenish. So why don't we have a baby? Not that it's anyone's business but mine and Zac's, I'm kind of over the awkward questions from friends, family, and weird acquaintances.

Truth is, I want a baby pretty badly. My body just doesn't seem to want to work with us. This is where it gets a little personal so look away if you would like to pretend like our baby will come from a stork. 

I have been off of the pill for around 10 months and my body will not ovulate by itself anymore. As some of you may know ovulation is pretty important for makin' a baby. I have visited a couple doctors (one of which scared the bajeebies out of me, saying that I was infertile. woah, that word was harsh.) and the last doctor prescribed me a medicine that should help my body. I will need to go back in for another appointment soon since it's been 6 months on this particular pill and no dice, I'm hoping something like Clomid can help me out.

You might be asking why I feel the need to open up about this all of the sudden and why I think people care and there are a couple answers. Like I said, I'm sick of the questions, but also because it's been a huge weight on my shoulders for a while now. It's hard not to feel alone and a little bit broken. It's hard not to constantly wonder why we are facing this trial in our marriage or wonder if it's a lesson in patience that I'm not quite getting. I feel a pit in my stomach every time someone else announces that they have a little spirit on the way, not because I'm unhappy for them in ANY way but because I'm waiting for the day that I can make that announcement. 

Does this make sense? Am I being crazy? (I can answer that one... yes, I am) But man, it feels good to write this out. We are grateful for the time that Zac & I have had together and for the stability that we've found. We have faith that someday we will get that crazy excitement over a weird stick that you pee on and be able to share in that fun with our family and friends. And I know that someday we will be totally awesome parents. We're just waitin' around for that someday... :) 

This is my baby for now.

Lucy.

Zac and I have added to our happy little family! This little lady came to us through a crazy but wonderful guy named Tony. Tony is a regular at my work and we have had a running joke for a while now that since I don't drink and he bought the rest of the branch drinks one night that he "owed me a puppy". At first it was just a running joke that I could bug him about but shortly after it started he knew a guy selling boxer puppies and asked if I wanted one. Duh, of course I did. But at the time Zac and I knew that a puppy would be a pretty big expense and we weren't in a situation to do it. So the puppies were all sold. Well, last week Tony came in and told me that one of the families that took a puppy couldn't keep her anymore and he wanted to find her a home. I jumped right on that! I wasn't really sure of why the family didn't want her or how she would be but I couldn't pass something like this up. Sure enough, Saturday Tony showed up in his big ol' truck with this precious little girl just for me. 

I know it sounds silly but I could have wept I was so elated. To keep it simple, I need something to take care of. Babies aren't in the equation right now (which is a whole other story on it's own. Someday I'll write it all out) and I was ready to go get a pet rock just to have something to call my own and take care of. That's where Lucy has stepped in and filled that void. What an angel dog we were blessed with. She just LOVES to be loved! The family she was with before obviously didn't care for her that way that they should have. At first she was terrified of the tennis ball, would back away quickly if you got a little loud, and wouldn't make a peep. I think now that she has been here a couple days she is starting to realize that this is home now, and that we love her like crazy. Her little personality is starting to come out and she is the perfect match for us. I can't even stress how much of a blessing she is to me. Aaaand now I'm that crazy dog mama but I love it! :) 

teal.

I don't get Saturdays off of work very often but last week was the exception. A whole Saturday off to myself, I had no idea what to do. Well, Friday night I stopped by to see Stephanie and told her I would love to paint my bathroom with the only issue being my lack of desire to buy paint for it. I was at that point where I was over picking colors and debating endlessly on whether I would love it or hate it once it was on the wall, ya know? So Steph, being the kind soul that she is suggested I take a can of teal paint she had left over from painting a dresser. Free paint? Yes, please. So I decided to keep it as my little secret from Zachary and surprise him when he came home that night. It took ALLLLLL day to do it, but it is finished and I am in love. I initially thought it was a little dark for my taste but it has definitely grown on me. Probably because it looks a MILLION times better than it did before. Let me remind you of what the bathroom looked like before....

Yep, pret-ty classy.

So I began. I had to patch a couple spots in the drywall and scrape off old sealant tape around the tub surround that looked like it had been there for quite some time. Oh yeah, it even had hair in it. Not ours. Cool. 

Then the paint happened. 

That was the point where I stopped and thought to myself "What if Zachary hates this? What if I'm just wasting my time?" But then I thought "Meh, it already looks better even half painted, just go for it." 

Here is a nice side-by-side to show you the dramatic change. Huzzah! I'm so glad I went with it and finished it off. Just a few more little touches here and there and I can consider it complete! :) 

PS. Zachary loves it. Some of our friends miss the forest. You win some you lose some. 

home.

Sooo Zachary & I have bought our first little home! It is in the CUTEST little town, Windsor. We have purchased it with full knowledge that it needs some TLC (aka lots of work) but we couldn't be more excited! The guy we bought it from had renters in it previously and they weren't exactly gentle with it but we have done all the necessities to make it clean and livable while we save up for all the big exciting stuff we have planned! New floors (a super dark lamanite "wood" throughout), expanding the teeny tiny bathroom, all the good stuff! Here's a little peek into our latest project... 

Front room looking from the front door

This half wall was absolutely POINTLESS. And we knew we would just end up storing junk on it.

Front bedroom. Someday this will be my (our) office! The carpet was gnarly so Zac just pulled it out. 

Second bedroom, mostly storage right now but hopefully in the future a cute little nursery :)

Sorry about the stuff all over, this is when we were in the midst of moving. 

Other side of the kitchen. Please notice the lovely stencil work on the walls.

The mini bathroom. Mural included at no extra charge.

Our bedroom! Luckily, when Zac pulled up the carpet in here we found the original hardwood flooring! So neat!

Front room after a quick coat of paint & some bright new curtains! Someday there will be some amazing crown moulding on the top and bottom (is it still "crown" if it's by the floor?)

I love my grey walls. And the fact that the half wall is gone :) Pulled right off by my super manly husband.

So there you have it. Home. We also have a huge yard that needs lots of lovin' too but that is honestly the least of my worries. We are so so excited to see what we can do with it and make it OURS! It's still so crazy to think of ourselves as homeowners but it's a reality now! Craaaazy. I'll keep you updated as we go along & if you have any tips go ahead and throw them our way! 

hooked.

I can't count how many times I listened to this today. I'm officially hooked. Also, the new dancemix of Somebody That I Used to Know? It makes my ears bleed. And that's that.

two.

I seriously cannot believe it's already been two years. Best two years of my life, hands down. 

I love you, Zachary. Happy Anniversary.