The airplane ride to Arizona

Getting to Arizona was quite the EXCURSION and EFFORT. Holy cow. 

It really wasn't until the day before we left that I truly hunkered down to get us packed and going. It's honestly because for at least me, the babies, and Max we really go through the same few clothes so we needed to wait until the last minute to do laundry and then pack up all the clothes!

I'm a chronic overpacker, it's awful. So for the babies I pretty much brought all their clothes, bibs, blankets, burp rags and anything else I could think of it. They spit up so much that everything tends to get wet fast and we still are doing laundry really often so all of it just came with us. Casey and I personally super under packed more than we ever have before, I was so impressed with us. But there was so much random stuff we had to bring and then a couple Christmas presents for Max, it all just adds up so much!!! Here's some pictures of our journey. I'm for sure going to write a post on traveling with 3 under 3 on an airplane at Christmas time.

1. This is often how we coax Maxson into brushing his teeth without screaming, he gets to brush ours.

2. My huge twin nursing pillow took up WAYYYY too much space in any suitcase, it was just a little ridiculous. Casey joked that he would bring it as his carry on neck pillow. Hardy har har. 

1. We would soon find out how much these "meemoz" would be the most wonderful bribing tool for Maxson. Bless those fruit snacks. 

2. The babies DID NOT do enough of this on packing day, grr.

At the airport!!!!!! Bless the un-business and simplicity of the Omaha airport. Seriously. No lines anywhere. Just getting out of the car into the airport was a workout. The closer and closer we got to the airport the more stressed I was getting. I just knew that no matter how much we prepared, it was going to be hard. We also planned to be there 1.5 hours early and because we of course left late it was only an hour and 10 minutes. That added to my stress. We decided to not take the baby's car seats and borrow my siblings' ones instead. That did add to making the airport journey easier but at the same time harder getting the wraps correct on each of us and the babies from the car seats onto us when it was chilly outside.

Getting through security could have been worse. As soon as Maxson was out of the stroller at security he tried belting it through so many times, ha. That child was so excited to RUN! And with a baby strapped to you, it's a little more comical running after him. He was pretty happy about seeing airplanes out the window but then once he saw people entering the plane he wanted to join them RIGHT then…luckily Casey had to be the goalie on that one and I just guarded our stuff (so as not to scare employees with the possible bomb in the unattended luggage).

You can't imagine the stares we received in the airport. And faces amazement once they realized we had TWO babies strapped to us and a crazy (at times crying) toddler in our stroller. We got "you guys be crazy" looks like crazy and a few kind comments from strangers which meant a lot.

Here we are waiting to board. Casey had taken Max out of the stroller so he could get some wiggles out but ended up holding him so he wouldn't run away. At one point Max began patting Quinn on the back like he always sees us doing when we burp them and kissing the side of his face. Seriously, so cute and was one of those "this makes parenting worth it" moments.

We sat in the VERY back of the plane, the last 2 rows. We couldn't sit in the same row since there were 2 lap children. The babies really did do just fine. They cried out here and there like normal but nothing we couldn't not soothe. We switched babies back and forth throughout the flight. We did a combo of nursing and bottle feeding. We only had 1 super smelly poopy diaper. Max played on the iPad pretty much the whole time or ate a plethora of snacks. There was 1 open seat on the whole plane and luckily we got it! And seriously it was necessary. Casey did amazing taking care of a baby and Maxson's needs simultaneously while I kept us organized with the seat behind them handing them food and drinks and toys and doing diapers and bottles etc. That open seat next to us was golden. Bless the 2 men who sat in our rows. The man in my aisle was the sweetest English man and had 2 beers (one on the house) and was just so kind. And I heard the man in Casey's row just got his personal space invaded like crazy by Maxson. The Southwest flight crew could not have been more AMAZING. At one point they took Max with them up and down the aisle to collect trash. They helped hold babies, gave us extra snacks and were just so optimistic and happy we were on the flight, it made us feel so good. I will forever be a loyal Southwest customer.

And finally making it OFF the plane back to our luggage! Once the plane landed it was like a huge relief, we made it through the plane ride! What made the plane so hard was that there was 3 tiny children who needed your constant care and watch and attention (two of which should have slept much longer than they did) and only 2 of us to appease their needs AND doing it all in this tiny area where you could barely move. Like I said, there were no huge horrible instances that made it a bad experience, we just have very busy lives that I'm still getting used to. We picked up our 4 checked bags, with babies strapped to our fronts, huge back packs on our backs, Maxson in his stroller and another bag strapped to the stroller and trudged our way to the curb to await my momma.

The first thing we said to my mom when I saw her was "Next time you come to us"

**The day we traveled to Arizona, Casey was running on 2 hours of sleep from staying up to study for a final that morning and I had 4-5 hours under my belt due to a rough night with the kids. I think those factors did us in too**

more about this little baby!

thank you so much for all your sweet words!

we are so excited for this year(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!).

all the changes we have coming our way will be wonderful, but most importantly having a baby and starting our family!

it's been so fun for me all summer looking at people's blogs that have kids.

we just can't wait til the cute kids we play with will be OURS!

my official due date is nov 30th, i'm measuring a little ahead of that so we will see what happens!

the picture i posted yesterday was me at 17 weeks, i believe.

i'm now about 18 1/2.

me post workout, we don't really have ANY mirrors in our place so this is me on my tippie toes!

 the only way to workout is in tank tops around this area or you DIE of humid hotness!
isn't my facial expression awesome? man, i'm cool when i take pictures of myself in the mirror.

i've had the easiest pregnancy of mankind, i feel like,

if it weren't for us hoping to be pregnant i probably wouldn't have known a thing til i was 12 weeks along.

nothing about me has changed except that i now am breaking out like the teenage face i never had to experience.

it's been so fun these last 3 weeks starting to see a difference in that belly area!

with my 5'3" frame there's not much vertical room for that baby so out is really all that's left.

i feel our little boy moves TONS whenever i'm working out.

i didn't workout for the week we were in hawaii plus a few days on each end of the trip.

when i came back it felt like i was running with a fanny pack full of water down there!!!!!

i've gotten used to it now but it was the strangest feeling!

 the whole flutter/kicking sensation is also something you gotta get used to.

at first it was like "i think that's the baby moving...eh"

then it was like "i think the babies moving...maybe it could stop for awhile, that feels strange..."

and now it's like "hey i think he's moving!? or is that just me nervous hoping he's moving?"

i'll tell you how my feelings change on that subject in the coming months :)

wondering why we waited so long to share the news?

well, let me tell you, it was quite the complicated process.

i really didn't feel like telling anyone til i was 14 weeks along as it was, because like i said, there was no difference in me whatsoever.

but more importantly we weren't able to have a doctor's appt til i was 18 weeks!

graduating from BYU means no more BYU insurance.

8 weeks=finals week

9 weeks= graduation week

10 weeks=traveling week

11 weeks= settling into new jersey week

12 weeks= still settling into new jersey week

also, if i had gone to the doctor while still on BYU insurance and been officially pregnant,

a new insurance company would not have liked that.

we learned that if there's no officialness of it through a doctor, you're not legally pregnant on forms.

so the waiting began to be accepted onto insurance.

waiting and waiting and waiting.

while we were in hawaii i turned to casey and said, "i don't want to wait for insurance anymore, i just want to go to the doctor!!!"

low and behold the 1st sunday we were back we learned that the insurance was officially approved!!!

so we began looking around at places here in NJ and that whole monday i was a bawling mess of tears.

i must clarify, we have insurance but it does not cover maternity insurance, which we were totally prepared for.

so as we're calling around to places (we as in casey because i couldn't get a grip on myself after the first place i called) telling them our situation (2 months here, no maternity insurance, yada yada) they're giving us quotes.

and the quotes they're giving us are astronomical for 2 visits!

into the thousands, people, and that was all the places

i've had a few siblings who've had to pay for babies and they gave us estimates of what to expect.

and boy were they WAY OFF!

again, there's me crying and crying and crying thinking "why did we go to hawaii! we should have saved the money!" "why didn't my siblings tell me the truth of how much it'd cost?" "why why why!?!?!"

so then casey calls this one place in nebraska asking what kind of blood work i need to get done if we were to come to their office in the fall.

after a half hour of talking to them about pricing, visits, etc, we decided it'd be more cost effective to FLY me to nebraska for my visits!

can you believe that?!?!?!!?!?

also, all the people we talked with on the phone from nebraska were a bajillion time nicer than the new jersians.

i can't begin to tell you how grateful i am that we'll be living in nebraska the next 4 years and not new jersey, ha.

the nebraska prices are crazy lower and exactly what we thought we'd be paying.

i flew to nebraska on tuesday and was able to see that precious baby moving and kicking!

more about our 1st appt/nebraska day for another day!!!!

thank you again for all your sweet wishes!

oh and here's his first and only clothes we have so far!
we picked up a little boy and girl outfit in hawaii!
ps- i FINALLY have gone through my hawaii pictures and will be sharing them next week!
all the little boy ones were so ugly.
i'm pretty sure we looked at every shop at the swap meet but FINALLY found a cute one!
happy we looked so hard because now i can't for him to wear it!!!!!!!!

last day

today is the last day we have to deal with this

and tonight we'll be on a plane toward this

to go to this for a week

this has probably been out most stressful week of finals in our lives.

i don't know what we've eaten all week.

maybe pizza, cup of noodles, lots of junky food, cereal...that's about it.

we're ready to be fed again.

little to no sleep all week

work shifts til 2:30 in the morning.

worked 7 days straight at the library.

tons of laundry that needed to be done before the cruise.

head aches from studying too much.

but enough of this crying fest.

we're surviving.

we both have 1 final left.

neither of us have packed for this 8 day cruise of ours, but guess what?

it doesn't matter!

tonight, no matter what is or isn't accomplished,

that plane is leaving to ft. lauderdale and we'll be on it!

merry christmas!!!!!

we are sinking

other than the fact that i love this video and it's hilarious,

casey and i wanted to share this video because we are "sinking" too much and literally sinking as well!

at least that's what it feels like.

we're drowning in finals.

i have 8 total this week

casey has 4 total this week (2=horribly hard)

statistics is killing me right now (right along with church history)

casey has been on o chem for the last 6 hours. after 3 days of working on that review...he's half way.

thursday night CANNOT come sooner

my affair with the library and english class.

I calculated it out, and 16 of the last 24 hours,

i spent in the library working on ONE retarded English project.

Yeah, I pretty much wanted to cry

Yesterday I was in the library from 8-5 straight working on it

note to self: stop procrastinating

a night of mourning

tomorrow (Wednesday 11/11 [ironic date for the amount of stress for it eh?])will be death for me:

7 am- get my toosh out of bed and get ready for the day
8 am- dance class
9 am- Net testament
10 am- team dance class
11 am- dance class (at 11:11 am I will make the 1st ultimate wish of the day)
12 pm- american heritage
1 pm- marriage enhancement class
2 pm- lunch with cousin from far away
3 pm- dance practice
4 pm- biology class
5 pm- go to the testing center and take my mean american heritage test that I will stay up all night studying for tonight- literally, all night
6 pm- testing center continued
7 pm- still testing center- my bum will probably be numb by then and I will be hating America and Dr. Pulsipher (ok, maybe not the America part)
8 pm- meet for a RE-DRAFTING of a group project that's absolutely stressful
9 pm- re-drafting continued
10 pm- STILL re-drafting our dang paper to perfection (although it will still get a B no matter how we write it or what we write about)
11 pm- go home and study for New Testament test with Casey (at 11:11 pm will be the second ultimate wish of the day [my most favorite person will be with me on this one!])
11:59 pm- a quick kiss good night

Thursday will also be slightly deathful:

7 am- dance practice
8 am- come back home and get ready for the day
9 am- health center class- because I don't know how to be married
10 am- health center class cont
11 am- health center class cont
12 pm- go take New Testament test
1 pm- FAMILY GETS IN TOWN! (tentatively)
it gets mushy right here, but all I know is that I'll be pretty dang busy with fam and temple stuff shopping- this part will actually be a good part
5 pm- meet with Eng group to start a NEW super fun Englsih project that I'll most likely come to not love so much :)

But I'm excited for the days after Thursday, I'll have my ballroom competition all weekend long and I get to go through the temple for the 1st time! It will be a wonderful weekend of family, the temple (which I'm so happy for), and dancing!





PS- 11 more days :)