One Year Anniversary

Yesterday was Mark and I's one year anniversary and it is absolutely CRAZY to me!  I have pretty much decided that I do not understand time at all.  In so many ways it seems like it has flown by - but actually mostly it seems crazy to me that it has only been a year.  And WOW...has it been a crazy year!!!

A year ago we were married in the beautiful Salt Lake Temple...pretty sure it was the best and easiest decision I have ever made - I just hope eternity is long enough with this fellow of mine.  

We moved into our first place - also known as Kabin #300 at the Bear Lake KOA.  Haha, how many people can say that there first home together was on a campground in an itty-bitty cabin?  It was a great month though - definitely good memories.  

Yet another move - this time to our castle on the lake.  Well, maybe calling it a castle is a little much, but to us, it felt like a castle.  We had TONS of room, a stunning view of the lake right from our backyard, and also - a lot of great memories.  We miss Garden City.  

 I graduated from Utah State University in Elementary Eduction.  LOVED going to Utah State!

Berning Family Vacation 2011 to Arizona.  So much fun - loved every moment of this trip.  We fell in love with the Grand Canyon State.  Can't wait for more vacations in the future!

Our THIRD move of the year - this one to Denver.  Crazy where life takes you - but it has been a wonderful experience for Mark and I as a couple, really makes you learn to depend and rely on one another.  

Mark began his first year of pharmacy school at the University of Colorado.  He loves it - loves the program, teachers, other students, the whole shebang.  What more could you ask for?

We found out we were going to add a little kiddo to our family!  Couldn't be more excited about this!  Now if time could just move a little faster so that they can get here sooner!

I got a job at Montclair Elementary School for a whopping SIX DAYS!  It was a good experience and really opened my eyes to some things that I feel better for knowing now.  Only wish that maybe I could have stayed a little longer and help more financially - but what can you do?

And that is our year in a nutshell.  Seems like SO much has happened - what a first year?!  I hope things slow down a little bit this next year, but I am guessing with this little one, life is only going to get crazier - but a good kind of crazier :)

Our anniversary this year landed on Sunday and so we did the bulk of our celebrating on Saturday evening.  We were able to go out to Outback Steakhouse for dinner - and we stuffed ourselves silly.  It was SO good.  We came home and rearranged our front room and set up our air mattress.  We decided to have a little sleepover in the front room.  

Some of us are already a little tuckered out...

 We watched some of our wedding videos and had a good time reminiscing and laughing at some of the pictures.  We had fun looking at our "Growing Up" video especially imagining what our little guy is going to look like.  We are fairly positive that he is going to have the chubbiest cheeks you will ever see because we both had some pretty big chunks on our face.  Haha, we had a good time.  

My mom was also WAY on top of things and saved the top of our wedding cake and froze it for us.  When my Dad came last week he left it with us and we were able to eat a slice of our wedding cake.  I'll tell you what - I remember it tasting better :)  But we did each have a couple bites and it was a fun little memory. 

 We ended the night cuddled up watching "African Cats."  I had bought this earlier that day as a surprise - probably more for me than Mark, but as Mark insisted later that night "he loves animals!" so I guess it was good for both of us.  It is a Disney documentary type movie about lions and cheetahs.  We loved it, and decided that we would be very happy to have a baby lion or cheetah in heaven. :)  They were adorable.

  

 The next morning, Mark woke up early and made a feast for breakfast.  It was so yummy and I LOVED it.  

Again, I am so grateful for the amazing first year that Mark and I have shared together.  I feel incredibly blessed every day to be with him.  I love that our Heavenly Father is in charge - His timing and His knowledge of us is incredible.  I truly know that He knows us better than we do and I am grateful that He brought Mark and I together.  He is definitely the perfect man for me.  

One year down...eternity to go...

Daddy Daughter Time

Yesterday was a GOOD day!  My Dad never has business trips/meetings here in Denver, but I am selfishly very glad that this changed yesterday for him.  This was pretty much a fluke that he got sent here, so I am not anticipating it happening again anytime soon, but I was so grateful to be able to spend some time with him. 

My Dad was only here for the day and was only able to stay at our apartment for about an hour and chat, but boy oh boy, did I love it.  It seems so silly, but it is just so nice to see family.  Plus, this was the first time that anyone from my family was able to come here and so I was a pretty happy camper. 

There really isn't much to say about the visit - like I said, it only lasted about an hour, but I was so grateful for that even short amount of time.  I have always had a great relationship with my Dad and I know that that is a huge blessing in and of itself.  I look up to my Dad so much and I have always been a bit of a daddy's girl.  I love that man and I am grateful to be his daughter. 

I have just been thinking a lot about our little chat we had this morning and that led me into reminiscing about different memories I have with my Dad.  So...forgive me, but here are just some pictures that I love of my Dad and I growing up.  So here's to you Dad, thanks for making time for me yesterday, it meant more then I can say. 

I promise - I really do love my Dad :)

I actually think the real winning part in this picture is how Melina is sitting...

Always Daddy's little helper

Daddy-Daughter backpacking trips - some of the best memories I have growing up

I love you Dad - thanks for always being there for me

Happy Love Day

This year was about the most relaxed Valentine's Day one could imagine.  Most would say it was pretty hard to distinguish it from any other day in the Berning home.  Mark had two quizzes for the next day to study for and so there wasn't a lot of time for "fun and love."  But we did have a yummy dinner and I splurged and bought some cookies n' cream ice cream (this does not happen a lot because we go through it WAY too fast!).  We were able to just sit down and cuddle for awhile and talk about life when we were dating and just how even in the short (almost) year we have been married our relationship has changed.  So glad we get to grow closer to one another every day.  Mark also surprised me with a new book!  This was definitely unexpected and thoughtful - I don't remember ever even mentioning that I wanted this book, but he got it perfect! We spent the rest of the evening after dinner reading on the couch (my good book - his boring "Handbook of Nonprescription Drugs") and it was just nice in all of its simplicity. 

Mostly I am just grateful for every day I get to be in love with Mark.  I know...am I getting too gushy?  But honestly, I feel so blessed with how my life has been with him apart of it every day.  He really is my best friend and I couldn't imagine my life without him.  Love that boy.  Hope everyone had a great love day!

It's a BOY!!!

IT'S A BOY!!!  It is SO crazy to me still!  I keep looking at our pictures of our little one and can hardly believe it.  We are ecstatic about everything!  It is all just an incredible feeling.

Yesterday morning I was able to go to the doctor and have my "anatomy ultrasound."  We were kind of bummed because Mark has been able to come to every visit but we could never seem to work out a time for this visit that would work with his school schedule.  I was dying to tell him!

One of the first thing the nurse that was doing my ultrasound asked was whether or not we wanted to know the gender.  I don't know how people wait!  I can definitely see the fun in waiting, but I guess I am just not that patient!  :)

Hopefully this is "blog appropriate" :)

And I was so glad that that was practically the first thing she showed me.  It was funny because we had been kind of asking our families what their predictions were and it seemed like "logically" we were in for a little girl.  My family has only done girls and out of the eighteen grandkids on Mark's side, only four are boys.  Mark and I both had been pretty quiet on how we were feeling.  We didn't want to be wrong!  But it actually did help me learn to trust in myself a little more.  I had been feeling boy for awhile now, but again, "logically" it just didn't seem like it would probably happen.  And to be honest, I was happy with WHOEVER!

Point being, we were very pleasantly surprised to find out we were having a boy.  It was incredible to be able to see all of the little parts of our little one.  But he is actually not that little.  He is actually quite a chunky monkey!  Both the nurse and the radiologist that came in later kept asking me if we were sure about dates.  We are positive.  The reasons they were asking is because our little boy is HUGE!  Just as a point of reference, right now he is supposed to be measuring about five ounces - he is eleven!  That is a HUGE difference in baby land.

It was pretty funny the conversation that continued with the radiologist.  He was asking me how tall I was, how tall Mark was, etc.  Neither of us are tall people.  However, it seems the Berning clan has had bigger babies, so this baby is 100% Berning.  Since we were positive about the dates though, the radiologist said he wouldn't officially change my due date yet but is fairly positive that this baby will have to come early.  He says at the current rate he is at least ten days ahead of schedule.  WHOA!  I told him I am completely fine with coming early as long as he is ready.  He said that they would probably end up inducing me if I didn't come early because otherwise he would be too big for me to handle.  Oh geez...

He kept talking about it so much that I started to worry that we were going to make the news or something for our chunky baby.  I finally jokingly asked him, "Am I going to make the news with some 14-pound baby or something?"  He just laughed and said, "we'll get you going before that happens."  FINE BY ME!  Haha, anyway, it's good to know that my poor health the last couple of months hasn't seemed to effect this little guy at all - he is just feasting in there!

Anyway, it was a great experience.  The nurse kept laughing because he was bouncing all over the place.  It took her forever to get the pictures and measurements of all his different parts because he was so "active."  It was fun to watch.  He was a little turkey though, because we were never able to get a good picture of his face!  They had me rolling over and trying all sorts of things to get him to settle down but once we finally got the image on where his face should be, he kept his hands up covering his face the whole time.  What a kid!  Anyway, we have a LOT of really great images of his hands and arms.  Maybe later we can get one of his face!  :)

His cute little hand

His little feet that were just wiggling around

Our "attempt" at a picture of his face with his hands blocking everything

We are obviously thrilled to know that he is growing healthy and it appears that he is quite "happy" bouncing around in there.  We can't wait for our little guy to get here!

The "best" picture we could get of his face - what a turkey!

Feeling Refreshed

This week I feel like has been such a turning point for me - which I couldn't be more THRILLED about!  For the first time in months I feel like I have been able to accomplish more of what I have wanted to.  My goal for the week was to get the house back in order.  There is always more to do, but I finally feel like I wouldn't be completely humiliated if someone were to show up unannounced :)  CHECK!

Also, this is probably way more important to Mark, but this has also been the first week I have been able to consistently make lunches for him to take to school AND make dinner every night.  WOW.  Sounds incredibly silly, but it was something I was really disappointed not being able to do, so now I feel quite proud of myself. 

AND this week Mark and I finally made our first batch of homemade ice cream!  For Christmas, Mark gave me a KitchenAid attachment that makes homemade ice cream.  I was VERY excited!  So was Mark - for two ice cream enthusiasts as ourselves - this was the PERFECT gift!  We decided for our first try we would make strawberry ice cream.  It tasted FABULOUS!  We learned some things to tweek in the future to make it taste THAT much better, but overall, was GREAT!  This is our ice cream right before we added the strawberries.  YUM!

Ever since last Sunday my mentality about everything baby has been "refreshed."  That is the best word I can think of to describe it.  I feel like I can finally focus on this little one actually coming.  I have gotten so excited looking at everything baby.  Making little (well actually they don't look that little) lists of things I want to make and do in the upcoming months.  Saying I am excited doesn't even seem to describe it. 

This week I also feel like I have ballooned overnight - and I mean overnight!  Pretty much I woke up one morning and Mark said, "yep, now you look pregnant!"  I am actually surprisingly very happy to be looking pregnant.  It is nice to get past the looking "chubby" around the middle stage and finally looking like something is there.  :)

DEFINITELY the most exciting thing of our week is that we find out what we are having TOMORROW!  YES, I said TOMORROW!  I feel like a little kid on Christmas Eve.  I cannot wait!  I am so excited!  Luckily, my appointment is first thing in the morning, so we won't have to wait long!  We can't wait to find out if a little boy or little girl will be joining our little family.  I wish I had some sort of prediction but I honestly don't.  Every time I think about it I get a different feeling.  I will truly be thrilled with any happy and healthy little baby!  Can't wait!!!

BOY

OR

 

GIRL