Thankful

One year ago me and my husband were driving to a new years party in spanish fork Utah we were about to find out if we were going to have a little boy or a little girl in a few days. I was almost 18 weeks pregnant, not even half way. I was just barely starting to poke out there. I had a crappy job at a sandwich shop and we were struggling as newlyweds commonly do. We lived in a small basement apartment with people above us who partied all the time. I had no friends or family around. I was newly baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and had only been married for 5 short months. Its crazy that in just one short year so much can change.

We now have a bubbly 7 month old little BOY and i am so lucky that i get to be a stay at home mom, we live in a nice big beautiful house in the town where we both grew up with family and friends who love us and help us succeed in all that we do. I have now been a member of the church for about a year and a half and on February 4th my husband and i are going to the temple to make our family forever. I am so very blessed to have everything i have and am so very thankful that in just a year so much can change for the better!

Learning from experience

Sooo. This thanksgiving turned out to be a doozy! Thanksgiving eve me and my mom, whom i was supposed to have thanksgiving with, got in a huge fight. Something we have not done since i was in about the 11th grade. We normally get along like best friends, well, other than my husband she IS my best friend. She text me saying, "you probably need a break from me we wont come over tomorrom for thanksgiving." I was heartbroken. I was mad at her and didnt want to see her, but it was thanksgiving and wanted to have a great time with my family. Needless to say i finally bit the bullet and called her, said i was sorry and that i loved her. The conversation didnt turn out as i had expected, but it was a step forward. I text her telling her to come over anyways. I started cooking when low and behold i ran out of propane!! yes, i ran out of the one thing i need to cook my thanksgiving feast and keep my big ol house warm. Luckily me and my mom had mostly reconsiled and i loaded all of my uncooked food into my buick (shes a brute) and headed to cook my thanksgiving dinner at my moms house. We were supposed to eat at 1 and is was like 12:45 when i STARTED cooking. I was stressed trying to get things done. I needed to do stuff at my house and i needed to do stuff at my moms house. How the heck was i supposed to be in two places at once? beats me. and my "other half" and not being so helpful as him and one of his younger brothers was consumed in what i would rather like to call "the devil", but is more commonly known as call of duty. SOOOO i finished cooking a ham, sweet potatoes, green bean cassarole, and rolls at my moms house, loaded it all BACK into the buick and headed back to my house. I had somehow gotten my husband to do one thing in the mean time wich was set up the fryer outside because this year i was frying my very first turkey!

All of the food was cooked and ready to eat EXCEPT the fried bird. i went to check the oil temp and it was somewhere in the 400's so knowing that it wasnt even supposed to reach 350 i quickly shut off the burner. Well when i put the turkey in at the right temp i had no idea how to light it again because my husband had left to get drinks. I called him, got the directions, but no one had a lighter! and with no propane i couldnt just light something on fire with the burner. Me and my mom ran back and forth with a little piece of paper that we had lit from the toaster for about 20 minutes and i finally found something to light the fire with. Just at the same moment Ryanne Willis my brothers girlfriend emerges with not one, but TWO lighters that she had! hmmm.. well Rye, bad timing! haha. We finally got the bird going good and steady when i went to pull it out i thought CRAP! i burned it because the skin was all blackened. I seriously thought that this had to be the WORST thanksgiving ever!!!

Earlier i had talked to my wise old grandma and told her all of the trouble i was having and she told me, "well any trials you have to work for will only make the outcome better." Well i love my grandma and she was right. we sliced into the black turkey to find the most juiciest plump perfectly cooked turkey i had never seen! it was delicious to the max! The whole dinner turned out to be very great. And the best part was that i had all of my family there to share it with. I am so thankful for Jesus Christ who was the ultimate example of humility and kindness and that even when he was being hung on the cross he showed forgivness to the men who beat him saying, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”

I am thankful for his teaching by example because i know my thanksgiving would have been a lot less thankful and a lot lonlier had i not reconsiled with my mom.

Rhiot updates

Orange Gatorade is my favorite

So much is going on these days and i love it! i love being busy and i love seeing people! Just today i got my hair colored, which i love btw, and i went to my brother in-laws jr. high wrestling meet and made a delicious breakfast for dinner!

My baby son got his first tooth yesterday! Its just a little jagged bit of tooth popping out of his gum! I love it and am extatic that he is getting so big and growing up, yet it saddens my heart that my baby is turning into a boy! I am so looking forward to raising him and being able to teach him things, i just hope i can instill good morals and goals into him! i sure will try my best!

Mogollon is going to state! YAY! its super exciting for me and Braden this year because we each have brothers that are playing! not to mention they are two of the star players :) i SOOOOO hope they win and i have a good feeling that they will!

My dad is going to the state game this weekend and will finally meet his grandson! I am happy about it! i havent seen him the entire time i have been married which is now 1 year 3 months and 9 days. but whos counting?


whats new with you?

The Devil has blue eyes!

this is our little mans very first halloween! We dressed him up as a little devil and went around to the trunk or treats. He didnt really care for the costume, but he scored me and Braden some nice loot :)

his poor little face is all red from daddys facial hair

The mom hair diaries

Lately i have been sporting this one quite a lot. its a great "second day" hair-do
ya know, the one where you washed and did your hair the day before, but you arent going to today? well this is what i do. i tease up the front and part it and simply bobby pin it back straighten all of the whispys down by my face and im ready to go! its super easy and takes me about 5 minutes! i love it. i used to have super long blonde hair that i would curl everyday before i had my son, but shortly found out that its not too realistic anymore since im a mom, especially since most of my getting ready involves rushing to take a shower while my son cries in his swing. So i ask you, WHAT IS YOUR "GO TO" MOM HAIRDO?

Picture mania!

Now that i have a beautiful baby i want to snap pictures of him all the time!
here are some new ones!

My Birthing Story

It was excatly 10 days before my due date and i had an appointment with my midwife at 9am, she stretched my cervix and ruptured my membranes to get things going. I REALLY wanted to have this baby so i started walking, and walking, and walking some more. At about 3pm i started having some contractions but nothing serious i waddled around on my birth ball and ate some dinner all the while i was at my moms house. My husband got there around 7pm and i decided that we should go on a walk, well i didnt even make it to the next stop sign before we had to turn around because my contractions had intensified ALOT. We went to the midwifes office and she checked me, not even dialated to 3! She told me to go home and take a bath that we might have this baby the next day or so. I got home and hopped in the bath, it helped the contractions a lot so there i sat in the bath talking to my husband and eating otter pops. I decided i had had enough of the bath situation and as soon as i stepped out of the bath BAM my contractions hit me like a ton of bricks. So there i lay, on the couch writhing in pain while my husband played his xbox, but that wasnt enough entertainment so he popped some popcorn! so there i was in the worst pain of my life and my husband was enjoying himself over there just munching away on his popcorn. Finally i talked him into going back over to my moms house, so between contractions i hustled my butt into the car. I layed on my moms couch for probably one 30 minutes before i decided it was time to go to the hospital. Off we went, me and my husband in our can and my mom and aunt in theirs. By this time it was about 9:30 pm. The 45 minute drive to the hospital was THE WORST car ride i have ever taken. I was SO uncomfortable and just silent trying to focus on my breathing, every so often my husband would look over and ask if i was ok. We pulled into the emergency room all the while i was puking into my 3 year old step sisters easter bucket (that got left outside under the car). We ran between contractions into the waiting room (they were less than a minute apart now) i slunked myself over the ladies desk in a bad contraction and asked her to "just give me a minute." People could definantly tell that i was about to have a baby so the other people in the waiting room were moving out of their chairs for me While another pregnant lady casually was walking into the emergency room as well carrying her bags, makeup on, hair did and guess what??? they wheeled her out BEFORE ME! To say the least i could have killed her. Finally a man brings a wheel chair to take me to the OB and when i get there they didnt even have a room ready for me, nope so i was stuck in the "monitoring room." 5 minutes pass, no nurse, 15 minutes pass, no nurse. Finally my mother had my husband go get a nurse to tell her that i was having contractions less than a minute apart. The nurse arrives and is asking me some routine questions when i ask if i can get a little medicine and she says no not untill she checks me, so very sarcastically i say "ok then check me!" She mosies on around to get ready to check me and she says "OH! your a rim!" not knowing what that was i ask ok so how many centimeters am I? and she exclaims that i was dialated to 9! all of our faces dropped!!! So in a huge hurry i had to change into a gown and get wheeled into a room, my midwife had to be called to come from 45 minutes away! Oh and at 9 centimeters dialated NO MEDICINE ALLOWED! So approximately 45 minutes later at 11:40 pm almost right after the midwife got there i pushed me out a healthy baby boy!
he weighed 6lbs 11oz and was 20 1/2 inches long! We named him Rhiot Stephens

Diapers and Dinners

May 26th at aproximately 11:40 i became a mother to a beautiful baby boy. He weighed 6lbs 11oz and was 20 1/2 inches long, we named him Rhiot Lanar Stephens after his great grandpa Lanar Cluff. We have been having so much fun being parents its unreal! ive been a stay at home mommy, but trust me its definantly a full time job between Diapers, Dinners, feedings, play time, naps, cleaning and the whole mess of other things being a mom and a wife entails. Ive learned so much these past 4 months like

* You really dont need that much sleep to function
* Husbands really dont help out all that much
* You can legally breastfeed in public and not get charged with indecent exposure
* You learned how to change a baby on Your lap
* You learn to wear spit up proudly
* Nap time is your sanctuary
* Showering is a priveledge not a right
* You learn how to nurse a baby while walking through the aisles of wal-mart
like i said, MESSY. haha

Its a tough job but someones gotta do it and i recently have dubbed myself SUPER MOM!

Home sweet home

Me and Braden have been so blessed in this journey of returning home to Arizona of course it hasnt been without struggle finding people to move into our place now and having to deal with our land lord, but through it all i have been one happy camper. We have found a place to move into back home and i am sooo excited! its a gorgeous home and the people are renting it to us for a steal! only 500 a month for this 3 bedroom 2 bathroom house! I am sad to say that we will only be staying in it for 3 months, but i will be happy to call this place home for the 3 short months i will be living in it

Packing =)

Today i am packing up boxes! Braden went riding with his cousin for the last time today so i am home alone being a bum and packing boxes up! its exciting! i cant wait to be moved back to Arizona! at least for a while till we go to Pennsylvania. but AZ is the best place ever and i miss it and cant wait to be home!

AZ here we come!

This is Kiley at almost 27 weeks pregnant! which marks the 7th month!! woo hoo! we are getting down to the wire to meet this little boy and are sooo excited!! some things have been changing for us.. we had thought about moving back home for the baby being born about a month ago but never really acted upon it untill recently we had an interview with our bishop and his coucil to us was to move home so we really took it to heart and thought about it and decided to get the heck out of here. so we have been showing our apartment to people to take it over and it has been going really good so far the listing has been posted for 2 days and we have already had 11 people come look at it. most of which were really interested people! so were hoping to be back in AZ by April first or asap! We spring cleaned the house a ton so that it would look good for people coming over and i got a couple of pictures of my wonderful husband at work =)

Long time no blog

well its been a little while. yes i survived Braden being gone. he wasnt gone for as long as we thought it would be. we got to go to Heber and visit our family! yay it was sooo much fun and we love Arizona so much that we are trying to move back! so i have been stressed looking for apartments and what not trying to get things in order. if anyone knows where there are good apartments for a good price then contact us! i had my first bum experience on our way home from AZ. we rode back with Banning and had some vehicle complications . so there we were stranded in Rock point! at a mustang gas station/post office/laundry mat. haha. we had to wait for Dane to come from Heber to save us which took about 8 hours! or so it seemed. i got so cold trying to sleep in the truck that i drug my husband into the laundromat where we slept on the tables that are used to fold clothes on. haha. Braden was all "i know im not the first person to do this" haha. it was one heck of a time. a trip that normally takes only 8-10 hours took us 22 hours!! but yet again we survived!

Day 1

Well i slept pretty crappy last night without my hunny to snuggle with, but today i have been destined to have a good day! i cleaned, went on a really long nice walk, and went to blockbuster and rented Whip It and All About Steve. which with my husband hardly would have gone for had he been there ..haha.. as i was standing in the check out line the girl behind me told me that i was really pretty.. aww! melted my heart! i havent heard those words since ive packed on a bout 15 haha. and then she was like oh your pregnant congrats how far along are you? and i replied that i was almost 22 weeks and i was having a boy. She made me feel good. most of the comliments i get these days are "WOW your belly is getting so big!" or "Your getting really big really fast!" which are hardly compliments. Big pregnant ladies may have a baby in their tummy causing them to be big but it still doesnt help their morale when you say stuff like that because they are battling the fact that they have put on more weight than ever in their life! anywho. i have movies to watch!

blog to ya later

First Night Alone

Well my husband left tonight to go work in Arizona. He is going to be gone for 2 whole weeks!!! what the heck am i going to do without him? he is my rock! he keeps me sane here in a town where he is my only friend! it defiantly helps me realise what i have, he is my best friend, my secret keeper, my cuddle buddy, my hairstylist, the person who i cry to, but mostly he is my Husband and my one and only lover! i miss him so much already! But im going to try to keep myself busy with house work, movies, taking walks and working. im making a goal to try to be healthier for my little man. it doesnt help that i made like 2 dozen cookies today. oh well.. the past is the past! im going to walk everyday. even if it is 20 degrees outside people who follow my blog need to help keep me to my word and check on me! k? that means you! im probably going to blog about my day to day business while he is gone to help keep me sane. oh and this is my super mom pose!

Church

This was a beautiful sabbath morning.Braden and i got ready he went to home teach then OUR home teachers came then MY visiting teachers came! it was a pretty eventful day! While we were sitting in sunday school Braden was playing with my belly and he woke this little boy up and he started kicking! so Braden put his hand on my belly to feel it and all of a sudden Braden looked at me with the widest eyed smile i had ever seen and was like i can feel it! super happy like. that happend about 2 or 3 times before my little man got tuckered out and fell back asleep. It always makes me so happy and proud that Braden is so excited to have this little baby. He is always talking about having him and rushing me to the baby department to look at baby stuff and tell me what he is going to tach him and play with him Braden already decided (on his own) that when our baby can walk we will buy him a dirt bike! hahah. it is sooo exciting and fun to prepare for him. we cant wait to meet you baby Rhiot!... or Ridger.. were not entirely sure who you will be.. Love Mom

Today in the Stephens home

This is my husband. He is outside in freezing weather cleaning his dirtbike and dirtying every clean rag that i once had in the house.haha he is such a goofy guy! he posted his dirtbike for sale on KSL i really wish he wouldnt sell it. i like him having it but i think that he thinks if he sells it i will let him buy a bigger and better one. psh! in your dreams hunny. were having a baby and ive been dreaming of cribs strollers and car seats that i want to buy for months now haha. He truly is a great guy though one of a kind!

Pregnancy Pic

Well im getting REAL big these days!

Husband Hairdresser

hahah. i love my husband he is the best this is a picture of him mixing some dye to color my hair with. he has become my own personal hair dresser and he is quite good at it! he has done it probably 4 times now and he just keeps getting better and better! He saves my butt every sunday morning before church when i am doing my hair he makes sure i get the back and he helps =) he is positively the best man in the world!

Belly Laughs!

Well its official. i am now half way through my pregnancy! woo hoo! i feel for all of the brave moms who have done this before me. Although my husband doesnt believe me, its pretty tough work growing a baby.haha.. he thinks he did all of the hard work..psh. my belly is increasingly growing in size and it is now visible to tell that i am pregnant! another woo hoo!(finally out of the awkward stage) again, mothers before me are nodding their heads thinking that they know exactly how that is.. the stage where youve put on a few but no one knows that its a baby, the stage where you wear your largest shirts to hide your midsection. Now i just have to deal with the fact that my once cute inny bellybutton is trying to pop itself out there. like the baby is going to try to make his escape through it or something. haha. oh motherhood.. i cant wait to meet my little son!

BABY BOY!!!

me and my wonderful husband just had an ultrasound appointment and
she put the goop on my belly and moved the magic wand around on it and got a good position and shes like well what do you think it is and i could see two balls and a weiner! i was like its a boy!!! and shes like yep!! you guys are having a boy! Braden was beaming with light because the whole pregnancy he has wanted a little boy! we have been calling the baby a he or a him for this whole time. before we left i said if we find out its a girl we are going to have to apologize to her for calling her a boy this whole time. hahah. but we are so excited to have him! i now feel out numbered! im going to have to grow eyes in the back of my head my son will be into everything if he gets anything from his dad or uncle Boone! i am sooooo excited! yay!

Gobble Gobble!

Im making my very first turkey on my own!! yes, its a pretty dangerous stunt.. but it was going to go bad in the refrigerator. so i had to man up and handle it like a pro! wish me the best of luck!

New to this blog thing

Im home all alone and lonely because my hunny went to play a softball game in another town =( ..oh and i dont know how to blog.. at all