Vegas Vacation

For Christmas and New Years, Peter and I headed to Las Vegas to spend it with my family. It's been a long time since we were anywhere else but home for Christmas. We decided this year it would be fun to participate in the fun that Christmas becomes when there are kids around rather than our typically adults only/boring Christmas day.

Before we left, we exchanged our presents with the exception of our stockings which we brought to Vegas with us. (We still did our traditional visit to Wal-Mart a few days before Christmas to shop for each others stockings while avoid each other in the aisles.)

Kaitlyn helped make the Millar (me and Peter) family tradition of Monkey Bread for Christmas morning.

Great looking cookies Brittany made.

I was as anxious for Christmas morning and the kids were (and maybe even more!). I couldn't sleep all night with the anticipation of what I was going to tell Peter in the morning. Poor Peter. I was laying in bed just waiting for him to start stirring. Of course, it felt like he was sleeping in FOREVER. Finally he showed the signs of waking up and I jumped on it. I jumped up and grabbed the binkies that I had wrapped. I told him good morning and told him I had a present for him. I then thrust the present at him and told him to open it up. He was barely awake but opened it up. I looked at him with anticipation once he got through the wrapping paper, waiting for his reaction...

It was the BIG MOMENT. I got nothing. I was like, "Don't you know what that is?!" And he was like "No. I don't have my contacts in. I can't tell what this is." Silly Kallie. I should have given him time to actually wake up, rub the sleep from his eyes, and feel present to the world. But, like an excited child, I couldn't. Oh well. So I was like, "It's binkies." He looked at me and asked, like this was a joke, "what, are you pregnant?" I said "Yes." He then woke up REALLY quickly. "Are are kidding?" "No," I told him, "I'm pregnant." I think he clarified a few more times that I wasn't joking and then got excited and hugged me. He was super duper cute about it. And I got that perfect moment I was looking for when I shared with him how our lives were going to change forever.

One of my favorite things was when he posted this on Facebook "Best Christmas Ever". That was it, he didn't explain why to anyone. But, I knew.

From the moment he found out, he was the perfect husband. He became so attentive to me and how I was feeling. He was so sweet and helpful and did everything he could for me. I am so lucky. He has been better than I could have even dreamed of. It was fun and special to share those knowing looks as one of us would think about the pregnancy and then look at the other and we'd know what that person was thinking.

Kaity sneaking down to see what Santa brought before everyone else.

Peter looking through his stocking.

Santa brought the kids each a bike.

Kaity LOVED the Justin Bieber poster we got her. Although I admit it caused me some pain when I was actually buying it but hey, it's about what the kids want, right?

Peter and his new Kindle from his awesome wife!

All the fun on Christmas morning

Hayden and his new guitar

Mmm...finished product - monkey bread on Christmas morning

Peter, Tyler, Kaitlyn, and Hayden

We got Tyler an art kit that he called his "Briefcase of awesomeness". It was rewarded to see him enjoy it so much.

Peter and Joe put together the big present this year - a trampoline! (I think Kimberly is super brave to buy a tramp for her kids - I don't think I would be brave enough since I'm now a responsible adult who thinks of all the possible injuries. She's a good mom who can remember how fun they are too.)

Dad came over on Christmas evening for dinner and some presents.

Peter played on the tramp too!

My preference would have been to not tell anyone else about the pregnancy until I was out of the 1st trimester (just in case anything happened, I would rather deal with it privately than publicly). However, since I was throwing up without feeling better afterwards, extremely tired (going to bed before 10 pm which is early for me), AND dealing with another pregnancy joy, hemorrhoids, there was no way I could keep the pregnancy quiet when we were staying with Kimberly and Britt and basically around them 24-7. They were getting suspicious and worried so when we were at In-N-Out we spilled the beans to them. They were both shocked and excited for us. Brittany started crying and was saying that she never thought she'd be pregnant at the same time with one of her sisters (she was 7 months pregnant). It was sweet and so I cried too.

New Years Eve didn't end up being the big party we had originally planned. Peter and I have partied it up Vegas style when we've been in town for New Years Eve. So this we planned on doing something big like on the strip or at a club or something. Well, due to how sick I felt, that was out of the question. Instead we hung out at Kimberly's and had snacks, played cards, and banged pots and pans. I've been going to bed pretty early so I didn't get close to staying up to midnight.

Some of the snacking food. My sisters were so sweet throughout our visit to have foods that sounded good to me and that I could eat. So much didn't sound good and I'm sure it was a pain but they were understanding and showed me such sweet compassion.

Cute Hayden

We went to a magic show on the strip - Nathan Burton. After the show we all went to dinner at Buca di Beppo. It was a lot of fun to spend the evening together with the Mejia and Amos family along with Grandpa and Nana. (It was rough hiding how nauseous I was from Dad and Marriann.)

Joe, Brittany, Kimberly, and Hayden

Here is my dad, Tyler, Marriann, and Kaitlyn

Hayden, Kaitlyn, and Tyler jumping on the tramp during some snow flurries. There was lots of tramp jumping during this trip. We all got out there and enjoyed it. I certainly don't have all the cool moves that I did in elementary school.

I am not a fan of this picture at all however, it perfectly depicts how I felt the whole trip. JUST CRAPPY, barely able to smile, and if you could zoom in you would see how splotchy my face was due to the blood vessels that burst during my puking sessions. A few fun things we did that I don't have pictures of...

We enjoyed time with our friends Tida and Jason. They used to live in Dallas but moved to Vegas so it was a MUST to get together when we were in town. We went to a local casino and played Bingo. I've never played Bingo in a casino but it was a BLAST. Tida even had the Bingo dobbers. After Bingo we went to dinner (where I faked eating like a normal person) and then we went bowling. It was a really fun night and there were even some moments where my mind got taken off how I was feeling.

We also go together with my best friend growing up Kari (nee) Harker and her husband and cute daughter. We went out to eat lunch at a Mexican restaurant with a great view of the strip. I so value friendships like mine with Kari that are going to exist regardless of how often we see or talk to each other. I'm blessed to have made such good close friendships from when I was growing up.

And since it wouldn't be a true vacation without snow, it of course snowed as we were leaving for the airport.

Really?!

So here's how it all began (with even some personal details left in)... In order to get the cheapest deal on my 2011 CROSSMARK health insurance, I had to go get a standard physical before the end of the year. So I found a doctor and made the appointment for December 20th. Prior to the appointment, for the past couple weeks (I think it was a couple weeks but honestly didn't pay attention to the length of time) my bosoms had been EXTREMELY tender. More tender then they've ever been. I mentioned it to Peter and he joked that I was pregnant. I laughed at that but in the back of my mind wondered if he might be right only because they felt different then they ever had and it wasn't going away. Here's a little background... Peter and I stopped using any type of birth control probably about 2 years ago. Since we knew I had P.C.O.S. and that might cause some infertility problems, we decided to stop trying to prevent pregnancy and just let it happen if it could. Well, obviously that didn't work because I never got pregnant. So in October I did some research and found an OBGYN in Frisco (Dr. Suzette Boyd - She's AMAZING) that had good reviews online and also had experience working with infertility. We decided to finally get serious about getting pregnant because I was no longer a spring chicken and your odds of getting pregnant go down after you hit 30 especially with PCOS. So during my first visit with the doctor, I let her know about my background and she was immediately game to help us have a baby. I appreciated that she listened to me and my history and didn't take a stance of giving it some time and trying a multiple things before really getting serious. Instead, she did blood work to check everything out on me and a sonogram. (I was comforted that all the tests she ran confirmed that I DID have PCOS since I was originally diagnosed around 16 and no other doctor since then has bothered to reconfirm this but just took my word for it.) After everything came back, here was her game plan: go on glucophage (a diabetic medication that has been known to help treat symptoms of PCOS and in fact was a medication that my first OBGYN put me on when I was diagnosed) for 3 months to help the PCOS and then have another appointment in three months. At that point she would start me on Clomid (a fertility drug) and we would go down the official fertility treatment path. She basically said that the glucophage could possibly help us conceive but it was more like a "let's give this a short time frame to work and then we'll move on to the next step without waiting too long". I asked her about using ovulation kits etc and she said to not even bother with them because they weren't worth the stress I'd experience trying to time everything just perfectly. So basically I walked out of the appointment feeling like, in 3 months after we medicate this body a little bit, we'll start working on getting pregnant. So anyway, back to the story! So here I was at my physical and I knew that we technically weren't NOT trying to have a baby and I was experiencing one of the possibly early symptoms of being pregnant. However, I didn't have any of the other symptoms so I sort of dismissed the possibility. When the nurse asked for a urine sample, I casually asked if she did a pregnancy test with that sample and she said she could if I would like. Since I hadn't taken one at home (Peter and I joked about it and he felt like I was being silly and it was a waste to take one), I figured why not and asked her to run one. Well, my physical continued and they checked everything out. At one point though, I thought I was basically done except for a blood test and they had me waiting FOREVER. I couldn't imagine what was taking so long. So then, the doctor walks in with a gift bag. My first thought was, "How nice! They must give a little something to all their new patients as a welcoming sort of thing." She then proceeded to tell me that the gift was something they give to expectant mothers. WHAT!?!?! My hand flew to my mouth and I stared dumbfounded. "NOOOOOO" I said... "Yes" she said. "NOOOOOO" I said... "Yes, you are pregnant" she said. So I totally tear up and I'm like "I can't believe it. I thought it was going to be harder than this." So I'm boobing as I tell them briefly my story and how I thought we were going to have to go through infertility treatments and the doctor and the nurse are tearing up. It was a crazy, surreal and special moment. After that, my brain was GONE. I pulled out of the parking lot and running through my head is "I can't believe I'm pregnant. I can't believe I'm pregnant." I wanted to tell Peter immediately but instead since it was only 5 days until Christmas, I decided to wait for 5 days and tell him on Christmas as the best Christmas present EVER. So I get lunch and go back to work. I said nothing to anyone at work but of course really wanted to. After work, I left a little early and went shopping. I wanted to find the perfect baby something to wrap up and give to Peter as a present and a way to break the news to him. I went to a baby clothing store and found nothing that would be gender neutral that I liked. Then I went to Target and again no clothing that hit the spot. So I decided to get a binky. (And since I was still so incredulous, I got a pregnancy test as well.) When I got home, I kept the secret from Peter and even teased him a little bit. We were talking about Christmas presents and what he wanted for Christmas. He jokingly said "If you give me a baby for Christmas, that's all you have to give me." I about died when he said that because I knew that I was going to be able to give him that for Christmas! I did get a couple other things for him as well though because I'm a good wife like that. I called my doctor to make my first prenatal visit and they just switched my original visit that was going to be about starting Clomid to my first prenatal visit. It worked out perfectly! Here's a picture of the pregnancy tests. The smaller one is from the doctor's office (2 lines means it's positive). The second one is the one I bought at Target to reconfirm the result. Here's a picture of the gift bag from the doctor's office (that I had to smuggle into the house and then immediately hide when I got home so Peter wouldn't see it). It's a bunch of baby stuff like wash, lotion, shampoo, teething ring, wipes, etc.

And here are the binkies that I bought to give Peter on Christmas day. I know they have a blue center but I figured since the bigger part of them was clear that it was pretty gender neutral.

So remember how I said earlier that I didn't have any other early pregnancy signs? I remember sitting in the doctor's office after they broke the news thinking about how great I felt and that I was so lucky since I only had tender bosoms to deal with. Well, literally within a day the morning sickness kicked in. (I wonder if I had found out like a month later I was pregnant if the morning sickness still would have started the next day.) It was horrible. All of a sudden I felt awful but was trying to hide it from Peter.

The day before we left for our trip to Vegas, Peter wanted to go out to dinner and we went to the Cheesecake Factory. I felt so bad that when I looked at their huge menu, all that looked good to me was edamame and fresh strawberries. When I mentioned to Peter that was what I wanted to order, he teased me again about being pregnant and having crazy cravings. CRAP! So in order to throw him off, I got my regular pasta dish and suffered through a little bit of it. I gotta say, those 5 days between learning I was pregnant and then telling Peter about it was torture! I was trying to seem as normal to Peter as possible all the while I felt so sick on the plane...sick during the night...etc etc etc. I bought a bunch of different types of crackers to try and calm my stomach and passed them off to Peter as just snacks for when we were traveling.

And that is how it all began!

P.S. I'm super irritated with Blogger. I have tried multiple times to fix the first part of this post so that there are paragraph breaks and each time I publish it, the breaks go away. ARGH! Sorry!

Christmas Lights

We kept up the tradition we started last year and got out and enjoyed the wonderful Christmas Light displays close to us.

We visited Frisco Square. It's so enjoyable to watch the lights all synchronized to music.
We also visited the Deerfield neighborhood in Plano. Peter was so sweet and made us both hot chocolate to drink while we drove around the neighborhood.

My camera just didn't want to focus so here's the best shot I've got.

One of the extremely decorate houses.

Date Night

3-D Glasses

Peter in the hotel room - he's so cool...

We used up one of our fun activities from casino night. We checked into our hotel and then headed out. We had an early dinner at a new Mexican restaurant. It was nice to try something new (even though it wasn't amazing and we won't go back). Then we headed to the movies. We saw Tron in 3-D and How Do You Know. A nice balace of sci-fi and then a romantic comedy. :) After the movies we went back to our hotel - the Aloft in Plano. It's not far from home but hey, a night in a hotel is a night away from home regardless of how far from home you are, right? We were hungry again so we ordered pizza and hung out. It was a great date night!